Chapter 32- The Fight Begins
"They're initiating launch," Maria said as she pressed a few keys on her computer.
"What?" Yelizaveta asked in shock as she looked over Maria's shoulder at the computer monitor.
"Come on, Liz. We have to stop them," Steve said as he and Sam took off running, Yelizaveta hot on their heels.
"Hey, Cap, kid, how do we know they good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asked as they stepped outside onto the roof.
"If they're shooting at you, they're bad," Steve said, huffing hard from the run.
Sam powered up his wings and took off as they reached the ledge that was in front of the first helicarrier as it was coming out of it's holding area.
Steve gripped Yelizaveta by the wrist and they both jumped. They hit the ground in a roll and took off running. Steve deflected bullets fired at them with his shield as they hid behind crates and fighter planes. Yelizaveta grabbed an airman as he swung at them by the wrist and slammed the flat of her hand into his face, grabbing his pistol as he went down. Steve had grabbed a grenade and tossed it to the other soldiers that were around a corner. A loud explosion went off.
"Hey, Cap, kid, I found those bad guys you were talking about," Sam said through their earwigs as explosions went off.
"You okay?" Yelizaveta asked as she and Steve peeked around a corner to see Sam dive to avoid balloons of flames and smoke.
"I'm not dead yet," Sam ground out.
Pierce watched through the window as flames and smoke erupted by one of the helicarriers. "Let me ask you a question. What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow and you knew that they were going to drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution, and you could just stop it with the flick of a switch. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you all?" Pierce asked Singh, handing him a glass of champagne and looking around at everyone.
"Not if it was your switch," Singh said stonily as he tossed the champagne glass aside.
Pierce chuckled and grabbed a gun from one of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team. At that moment Councilwoman Hawley struck out as he pointed the gun at Singh and kicked it out of his hand. She kicked the members of the team and threw something electrical at other members. She pointed the gun at Pierce and touched something on the side of her head. Her face distorted to that of Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. "I'm sorry. Did I step on your moment?" Natasha asked as she removed her blonde wig.
"All right, Cap, kid, I'm in," Sam said a few minutes later. Sam then cursed under his breath. Yelizaveta looked in the direction he had gone and noticed as a fighter plane swooped down.
"Indeed," Yelizaveta said just as softly and swore viciously in Russian.
"Liz, behind you!" Steve said sharply. Yelizaveta ducked as a fist came her way.
Yelizaveta grabbed the soldier's arm and snapped his wrist without much effort. "Eight minutes, Cap, Barnes," Maria said as Steve and Yelizaveta punched two soldiers hard in the ribs.
"Working on it," Yelizaveta said into her wrist communicator as another soldier blocked their way. Yelizaveta threw him against the metal door and she and Steve went up the stairs.
It didn't take long for Natasha to pull up the internet in Pierce's office. She kept one eye on him and one eye on the screen as one of the councilmen held a gun trained on Pierce. Part of taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA was the fact that Natasha was going to dump all of the secrets of both organizations on the internet. Of course it would also shut down the Red Room where Yelizaveta and Natasha trained, but Yelizaveta had said that neither one of them should cry buckets over that.
"What are you doing?" Councilman Rockwell asked.
"She's disabling security protocols and dumping all the secrets onto the internet," Pierce said, walking forward.
"Including HYDRA's," Natasha said.
"And S.H.I.E.L.D.'s. If you do this, none of your past is gonna remain hidden. Are you sure you're ready for the world to see you as you really are?" Pierce asked.
"Are you? You kidnapped Elizabeth Barnes from her parents and tried to make her be a Winter Soldier like her father. Are you ready to see what happened when that little girl decides to fight back?" Natasha asked evenly.
Steve and Yelizaveta didn't meet any other soldiers as they went to where the blades were on the first helicarrier. Yelizaveta tapped in the access code to open the port. Steve pulled out the blade and Yelizaveta put in the replacement. "Alpha lock," Steve said as they both walked away from the port.
"Falcon, where are you now?" Yelizaveta heard Hill ask.
"I had to take a detour," Sam said. A few minutes passed. "I'm in. Bravo lock," Sam said.
"Two down. One to go," Hill said.
The Soldier watched as a group of airmen came out to go to their fighter jets. "All S.H.I.E.L.D. pilots, scramble. We're the only air support Captain Rogers and the Winter Soldier has got," the leader said as the Soldier fired his bazooka at one of the jets. The Soldier walked through the carnage, firing his machine gun at anyone who got in his way.
The Soldier grabbed a grenade as it fell from a tech's hand and tossed it into a fighter plane that had loaded with fighter pilots. He jumped onto on of the planes and fired into it. He pulled the pilot out and got into the seat. He had to stop his daughter and her friend before they caused any more damage.
Pierce was starting to feel a twinge of fear from the keyboard where Natasha stood. It was the first time the man had showed any fear for as long as Natasha could remember. The encryption popped up and some relief came into Pierce's eyes. "Disabling the encryption is an executive order. It takes two Alpha Level members," Pierce said smugly. He must have thought that Rogers, Natasha, and Yelizaveta were completely stupid to have not thought of that.
"Don't worry. Company's coming," Natasha said flatly and a helicopter landed on the launchpad outside Pierce's office. A pair of dark boots and a wind-whipped jacket left the chopper. Fury then entered the building and no one was more surprised than Pierce.
"Did you get my flowers. I'm glad you're here, Nick," Pierce said as if he hadn't tried to kill Fury.
"Really? Because I thought you had me killed," Fury said, his voice dripping with contempt.
"You know how the game works," Pierce said.
"So, why make me the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Fury asked.
"Because you were the best, and the most ruthless person I ever met besides Agent Markova and Agent Romanoff," Pierce said.
"I did what I did to protect people and you knew that the girl's name is Elizabeth Barnes, not Yelizaveta Markova," Fury said stiffly.
"Our enemies are your enemies, Nick. Disorder. War. It's just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow, or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? A holding action, Nick. A band-aid. And you know where I learned that. Bogota. You and Markova didn't ask. You both just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing 20 million. It's the next step, Nick. If you have the courage to take it," Pierce said and Nick's face got grimmer with each word.
"No. I have the courage not to," Fury said as he took Pierce to the screen where the retinal scanner would come up.
"Retinal scanner active," the computer said. Pierce tried to look away, but Natasha aimed her Glock at him. He laughed nervously.
"You don't think we wiped your clearance from the system?" Pierce said mockingly.
"I know you erased my password. Probably deleted my retinal scan. But if you want to stay ahead of me, Mr. Secretary, you need to keep both eyes open," Fury said, removing his eyepatch to reveal his damaged eye.
"Alpha Level confirmed. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed," the computer said as both his and Pierce's eyes scanned. Fury stepped away and they waited for the rest of the files to download onto the internet.