Drabble 72-Winter

The Winter Soldier was a lot of things. He was merciless. He was cruel. He was compliant. He sent a chill down the spines of his handlers every time he so much as looked at them, despite the fact that he was always at their mercy.

Luckily, though, the Winter Soldier no longer existed.

Bucky Barnes did, and he was fixing all of the things Hydra made him do. He had taken out almost all of the Hydra bases he remembered on the western seaboard. The one he was currently checking out now was his last one. He remembered being here briefly, he thinks. Or maybe it was just one like it. But wither way, the shipments that were coming and going didn't look good next to armed guard that were dressed in pristine, white suits.

He gripped his rifle a little tighter, fingering the trigger with his flesh hand. He pulled the scope up to his face before slowing his breath and blowing the brains out of one of the guards. The other one next to him now had red on his suit, and a panicked look on his face under his sunglasses. Bucky climbed down from his hiding spot and slipped in during the confusion, ready to tear apart every single agent in there. But when he got inside, he found a large, empty room. Not a swarm of guards.

The base had a lot of hallways ahead of him, but if this storage room was empty that meant that those weren't shipment trucks, those were moving trucks. He growled and whirled around, shooting the back tires of the three trucks closest to him. He had a sinking feeling in his gut. It was a knot of doubt, that maybe this wasn't a Hydra facility. Maybe his Intel, his own brain, had been wrong. It wouldn't surprise him if it was. But he could swear he could remember those halls.

He quickly shook his head, getting refocused. Take down the base with everyone in it. Burn it to the ground. That was his self-proclaimed mission. He had to do it. Get any information on him in the process.

He crept through the halls, peeking in several doors. If anybody was inside well, they wouldn't be a problem anymore. Not with how fast he was.

He finally found the computer systems, all backed up with rare information about him. He sifted through the main computer, pulling out a flash drive before plugging it in and typing furiously.

But he didn't find anything on him. Instead, he found information on someone called P-42. He narrowed his eyes and clicked on the files.

He was almost sick.

Bucky knew he had been through a lot of bad, crazy shit, but to see a teenager go through all sorts of experiments while awake, well, it made him angry. If he didn't control his temper he was going to be seeing nothing but red here in a few moments.

He was scrawny, white hair and blazing green eyes. They called him Phantom when they spoke to him, but in the reports it was strictly P-42. He sifted through some more, because wherever this kid was, whatever bad he had ever done, Bucky knew deep down nobody deserved that kind of torture.

He looked to the cameras, checking the hallways. There were guards running back and forth, but another thing caught his eye. Right under the guards and next to the empty storage room was the live feed of the white haired kid, curled up in the corner of his cell. He had glowing green shackles and green and red-stained hair. His head was in his knees, and Bucky couldn't tell if he was sleeping or cowering.

He was here. He could help.

There was obviously nothing about him on the computers because this wasn't a Hydra base, Bucky concluded, but that didn't stop him from transferring all of the information on the kid onto the drive before packing up and heading to the cells. He was gonna enjoy taking these guys out.

It didn't take long for him to get there, what with his speed and quick firing. And there weren't many cells in this place, so that was also helpful. He slowed to a walk as he gazed into each cell, looking for the teenager. He found him at the very end on the right side, still curled up into a ball. What Bucky couldn't see from the camera is that the kid was trembling harder than a leaf. He knocked on the glass, and the boy shrink in on himself, mumbling something Bucky couldn't pick up. It sounded vaguely like static. Bucky blamed it on the glass.

He knocked again, still no answer. He sighed, tightening his hold on his rifle as he quickly looked behind him to make sure he was still clear.

"Hey, kid!" He said. The boy;s head snapped up, eyes wide with fear. His face was sunken in and if Bucky really wanted to he could probably count almost all of his ribs.

"Who are you?" He asked. The bravado in his voice didn't match his trembling figure one bit, and Bucky had to give the kid props for trying.

"Name's Bucky. Watch out for the glass."

Phantom was in the middle of responding when Bucky quickly broke the glass with a few strong punches with his left arm. The first four punches made it spiderweb. It was the fifth that was his lucky shot.

"Why are you here?" Phantom asked, unraveling a little bit. His shaking had stopped, but he was still eyeing Bucky warily, as if this was all a trap. Bucky couldn't blame him for that.

"Came here for answers," Bucky answered truthfully, but vaguely. "Found you instead."

As he spoke he walked towards Phantom, who backed away, running into the wall. There was a spark of defiance in the kid's eyes, and Bucky felt his lops twitch up just a little. Nice to know he wasn't a broken shell of himself like Bucky had been.

He skillfully flipped his knife out of the sheath on his thigh and cut through the green chords holding the boy to the wall.

"Why are you helping me?" Phantom looked at him with confused eyes, but there was a spark of hope in them. Bucky shrugged.

"I was in a similar situation. Nobody deserves this shit."

He pulled Phantom's arm around his shoulders to help him walk. He doubted those strings he called legs were going to do much. Phantom sagged against Bucky, and Bucky briefly thought about just carrying the kid instead of just supporting him.

"Bucky," Phantom grit out. This kid must be hurting all over. Bucky huffed as he pulled Phantom up a little more. "Bucky, I'm-"

He stopped short, falling to the ground on his hands and knees before a bright, white light suddenly enveloped the boy, turning the white hair and green eyes to a shock of black hair and dull, icy irises.

Phantom went sideways, unconscious.

Looks like I'm gonna have to carry him anyway, Bucky thought as he managed to get the kid in a fireman's carry. This way he was still able to use his gun.

Nobody would hurt this kid as long as Bucky was with him, that was for damn sure.

Bucky grunted as he set Phantom down, taking note of the slow rise and fall of his chest. They were five miles away from the base Bucky had burned down, and now he was hot wiring a car. He needed to get this kid somewhere safe, and he only knew one place where he had a chance of being accepted.

The car started without a hitch and Bucky strapped Phantom into the backseat before he got back in and drove off.

Phantom woke up when they were maybe an hour from Stark's ugly ass tower. He hadn't really known how to contact any of them. He hadn't really tried either, but he was sure Steve would be over the damn moon at seeing Bucky's ugly mug again. Especially since the last time they saw each other Bucky beat Steve's face in.

Good times.

"Where are we?" Phantom groaned.

"New York," Bucky replied ,not sparring a glance Phantom's way. "What's your name, kid?" He asked, because there was no way in hell his name was actually Phantom.

"Danny," he answered. Bucky nodded and stopped at a red light behind three other cars. "Where are you taking me?" He asked, worried.

"Old friend of mine. You ever want to meet the Avengers?"

"You're with the Avengers?!" Danny asked, excited. It was like a switch had been flipped, and now he was talking ninety miles an hour about superheroes and comic books and Captain America, and how he would kill to have a hammer as sweet as Thor's.

Bucky just nodded his head as the kid talked his ear off.

Bjkcy parked the car two streets down, so they would have to walk the rest of the way. Danny didn't seem to mind though. He looked glad to be stretching his legs a little bit. And while he was still thin and pale, he looked significantly better than when Bucky had found him two days prior. If it hadn't been for the steady breathing Bucky would have thought he was dead. And really, that would have been a fucking shame.

Nobody really looked at them twice, except one guy in a suit. He was broad, with short dark hair and a serious look in his eye. He walked up to them, and Bucky wanted to curse his luck as he pulled sleeve of his left arm down a little further. He couldn't have this guy ruining everything when the Avengers were the lcosest thing Danny would have to safety. At least until Bucky was sure it was safe for him to go home, wherever the hell that was.

"Who are you?" He asked. Bucky steppe din front of Danny defensively, automatically. Bucky figured it was because that's all he ever did with Steve, even when he became 240 lbs of All-American beef-cake.

"Steve is expecting us," he told the guy. "Tell him Bucky is here."

"Right, okay," the man said. He pulled out his cellphone though and tapped a few buttons before putting it up to his ear.

He told the other person on the line what Bucky had said, and then there was some nodding and a few facial expressions that would have been comical if it were a different situation. He nodded one last time before hanging up.

"Jarvis will take you all the way up to the living room floor," the security guard said. "And if you need anything else, feel free to call. The name is Happy."

"Right," Bucky said with a nod. "Thanks."

They stepped into the elevator, Bucky standing on one side and Danny on the other. They sat in a comfortable silence until they got to about five floors away, when Bucky stepped in front of the doors in case anybody decided to shoot at them. After all, he was sure nobody was going to welcome him with open arms.

The elevator doors dinged and opened without any annoying screech sounds, and the next few things seemed to happen all at once.

1. Bucky was tackled by a large, blonde human with the personality of a lost puppy.

2. Three guns were pulled on him, and he made sure they were only on him.

3. Danny stepped forward, tripping over himself trying to see which Avengers had decided to meet them

4. Danny almost got shot from surprising everybody because nobody expected to see him.

And really, that last one was Bucky's fault. But he didn't think about that. No, he just gave Steve a small smile when he pulled back, clapping a hand on the recovering Danny.

"This is Danny," he said, eyeing Sam, who still had two guns trained on him. The third came from his little spider, Natalia. She lowered her gun, but didn't put it away.

"I thought you said you were friends with them," Danny said. Sam snorted, and Bucky glared at him. Yeah, the last time they aw each other Bucky had destroyed his wings and Sparta-kicked him off of a hellicarrier, but that was hardly an excuse for him to be an ass.

"Sort of," Bucky replied. "Listen, kid, with these guys you'll be safe. I have some unfinished business to take care of," Bucky said, aiming that last part towards Steve. He had been following Bucky around the world with Sam for the past year, and he couldn't have that anymore. No, he needed to finish what he had started, and he couldn't have Steve, Sam, Danny-anybody in the way. "So be good, yeah?"

"Okay, Mom," Danny replied with a roll of his eyes. You would think he'd be more of a mental case only two days after escaping whatever facility that was, not some snot-nosed brat with a mouth on him. But Bucky couldn't help the wry smile that spread across his face. Danny reminded him of a certain kid from Brooklyn who was to stupid to turn the other way.

Bucky clapped Danny on the shoulder and pushed him forward a little bit, towards Natasha, and stepped back inside. But before the doors could close, Steve stepped inside too, and then they went down.

Danny looked around, stuffing his hand sin his pockets nervously. His fingers hit something small and plastic. He gripped it and brought it out, confused. When did this flash drive get there?

He looked back at the elevator, but Natasha had already taken it from his hand. Before he could protest, Sam stepped forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"So," he said easily. "Wanna see Thor's hammer?"