...Kit...
The dust is barely settling from the back to back explosions as Steve grips the door handle tightly and rips the whole thing clean off the hinges. It hits the floor and thuds loudly against the tile. "Well," Steve says as he gestures for us to walk through the now empty doorway. "He definitely knows we're here now."
So much for maintaining an element of surprise, I think wryly. With no other choice Steve leads us into the stairwell. I follow Sam and Clint into a dark and dingy stairwell that has a strange earthy smell to it. Besides the one flight of stairs leading towards what I can only assume is the roof, the rest wind downward in a dizzying spiral.
"I'm gonna check out up top," Sam says. Clint nods and decides to follow him upwards.
"And then there were four," I say as I follow Steve, Peter, and Tony down the stairs. The further down we go, the darker it gets. We are accompanied only by the sounds of our feet against the steps.
Finally we reach the end of the stairs and a single white door stands before us. "Let's see what's behind door number one, Monty," I mutter. Peter tilts his head at my words. Despite his face being covered by his mask I can see the confusion in the gesture. "Sorry, you're too young. You've never seen Let's Make a Deal?"
"Oh! That's the show with Wayne Brady where-"
"Hey!" Tony whisper yells at us. "I hate to interrupt this little chat, but we have some pressing issues to attend to if you don't mind."
"Sorry, Mr. Stark!" The eyes on his suit shrink in size as he speaks. I can't help but laugh a little at his reverence for Tony.
"Okay, on my count," Steve says as he tightens the strap of his shield and presses it against the door. With his free hand, he holds up three fingers. I reach for my gun and take it out of it's holster, holding it up to eye level, the barrel pointed directly over Steve's shoulder. If I wasn't so damn wired right now I might crack a joke at the way Peter is standing. Superhero pose. Tony taps the palm of his hand and I'm once again amazed by his technology as his suit seems to materialize out of thin air and wraps itself around him.
My nerves reach their boiling point as Steve folds each of his fingers down one by one.
Three.
Two.
One.
...Bucky...
The sheer size of the hidden room doesn't really surprise me the way it shocks the others. This entire floor of the building was seemingly unoccupied; besides Reed's relatively small office. Although there is something that halts me midstep. At the very back of the room, hidden behind curtains, are three fully encased rooms. I rap my fingers against what appears to be very thick glass. "Does anyone see a light switch?" I call over my shoulder, staring at my reflection. The rooms are so dark that the only thing I can see is my own reflection. Something about the darkness unsettles me. I can hear the others looking around the room for a switch but I cannot pull my eyes away.
"Found one!" I hear Nat's triumphant voice and then a soft click as she flips the switch. There is a low hum as the overhead lighting pops on slowly. One by one the long fluorescent bulbs overhead flick on and illuminate the room. If I thought it was creepy with the lights off, lights on takes the cake. On the wall beside Natasha hangs some very industrial grade heavy manacles that are bolted right into the wall. The worst part of the room? The three rooms that drew me in from the moment we walked through the hidden doorway are now brightly lit and from inside there are three people staring back at us. I hear a soft gasp from behind me, but I don't turn to see if it was Nat or Wanda. Instead I slowly move towards the room directly in front of me not daring to break eye contact with the man inside. "Bucky..." I hear a warning in Natasha's tone, but I don't stop until I'm inches away from the glass. I'm not worried about the man inside. I recognize that blank stare. I'd wager a hefty bet that this man doesn't even see me. Not yet.
He's standing stock still with his arms down at his waist. His chin is tilted down towards his chest just slightly and his eyes are blank as he stares a hole through me. He doesn't react when I wave a hand in front of his face. When I finally drag my eyes away from his still form, I realize the other two people, another man and a woman, are standing exactly the same. Hands at their waists, chin tilted downwards, and eyes that focus on nothing.
"Don't worry, Natasha," I begin slowly. "They can't-"
"Hear you. See you. They're asleep." Despite myself, I jump. I curse under my breath as I realize that I was so enraptured by the three people that I didn't even notice a fourth person in the room. Sitting calmly in a chair beside a large control panel is none other than Keiran Reed himself. Natasha, Wanda, Vision, and myself all four take a step towards Keiran as if we practiced it over and over again. With a single finger held up, he halts all of us. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," he clicks his tongue in time with each wave of his finger. "I press just one of these buttons and that glass separating them from us disappears and they wake up. I don't think you want to take all three of them on at once. Not by yourself."
"Who are they?" Natasha asks as I'm calculating the chances of him pressing the button before I reach him. Nat is a negotiator where I am a hit first, talk later kind of fighter. She is perfect at stalling for time.
"They are just the first of a new breed of super soldier. Hydra's goal has always been to perfect the serum, and I believe I finally did it. Well, my scientists did anyways." He stands slowly and approaches the glass rooms after waving a remote control in his hand to indicate that he is still in control of the situation. "These people were pulled off of the streets and given the newest serum. They're the only three to survive." Silence fills the space between us as he pauses for dramatic effect. I highly doubt he feels any remorse for the lives lost to his experiment. "Unlike the other soldiers from the Hydra programs, these three do not have the ability to remember their past lives."
I narrow my eyes as he casts a glance towards me. "What does that even mean?"
"It means, Sergeant Barnes, that these three no longer possess those memories. Do you remember when you saw Captain Rogers for the first time? On the bridge in Washington D.C.? Seeing him like that triggered something deep inside your memories. A place that was untouched by Hydra's... training tactics."
"Brain washing. Torture," I correct.
"These three," he continues on as if I never spoke. "Do not have the ability to recall memories because they no longer have memories." He smiles in triumph and when I look back to my team I see that I'm not the only one confused.
"Everyone has memories, Reed," Natasha speaks up once again.
"Sure they do. But there are ways to take that away from people. No doctor in the regular world would take on the job, but Hydra employs some of the very best neurosurgeons in the world. And they are more than willing to perform a lobotomy or two. Or three." He chuckles as he taps on the glass directly in front of the woman. A pit forms in my stomach as disgust threatens to overwhelm me.
"The longer you speak, the closer I am to taking my chances with fighting off these three if it means ending your life, Reed."
"Oh that's not the only reason you shouldn't hurt me. The warehouse your friends are at? There's no one there."
"What?" Vision speaks for the first time since entering the room. I had almost forgotten he was here.
"Yes, well. That was one of the more genius parts of my plan."
"I'm getting real tired of this ego stroking trip you're taking us on," I growl. He turns his mega watt smile back on me.
"I knew that Katherine wouldn't be able to stop herself from being present when the Avengers brought me to justice. She'd insert herself right into the thick of things; as she always did. So I laid some bread crumbs that lead them straight to an empty warehouse that is filled with bombs. They're set to go off at different intervals and if my assumptions are correct, they'll clear that building from room to room. Top to bottom. By the time they get to the basement, I will get a notification on my phone and I'll detonate the last bomb. It's strong enough to blow a crater the size of a small meteorite." Once again he pauses for added drama. Natasha has turned away from us and is speaking in a low, quick tone into her wrist comm cuff, trying to reach Tony. Before she gets a full sentence out, a small ping comes from Reed's pocket. "Too late," he says as he swipes his finger across the screen with a sadistic smile. "How sad for your little group."
Something in me snaps as I imagine the scene at the warehouse. My vision goes completely black with the last thing I truly see being Reed's panicked face as I lunge at him. I hear Natasha yell something that vaguely sounds like "Bucky, no!" but I ignore it. I shut my consciousness off, something I have been able to do since my time with Hydra, and I don't hear or feel anything as my hands wrap tightly around Reed's throat.
...Kit...
"There's nothing in here," I hear Steve's voice call from inside the white door. "Oh, here's a light switch." He flips on the light and a single bulb dangles from a long chain in the middle of the room.
"Man, Reed really needs to hire a cleaning company," I quip as I drag the toe of my boot through a thick layer of dirt on the floor tiles. "It doesn't look like anyone's been in this place in years." I holster my gun against my hip and wrap my left arm around my rib cage. It hurts to breathe which probably means I've broken at least a couple of ribs. "Haven't even fought anyone and I'm already beat the hell up," I grumble to myself. Wincing as I spin in a slow circle to take in my surroundings, Peter speaks again.
"H-hey, Mr. Stark?" Tony gives a barely interested 'hmm?' and doesn't even look up from whatever it is he's found on the ground. "Mr. Stark! Something doesn't feel right!" Peter's voice is urgent and he takes three long strides towards Tony. He never makes it all the way to him. I hear him shout to Tony again, see a spray of white rocket towards his iron suit and yanks him back towards Peter. I hear Steve yell something indistinguishable and a deafening boom to my left. Or was it my right? I feel something clasp around my arm and hang on tight as I'm blasted through the air, carried away by the force of the explosion. I come to a halt only when my back slams into a splintered wooden post and hear a sickening crunch from somewhere within my body. What little air that was left in my lungs is forced out and I'm left gasping as the warehouse begins to collapse around me. I have no idea where anyone is. My ears are ringing and my eyes refuse to do their damn job and focus on anything. Water is spraying me almost directly in the face as I continue to fight for air, my lungs screaming for solace. Within moments I'm completely soaked. Just as I'm catching my breath, and my senses begin to slowly return, I hear a low groan off to the side. I mean to roll towards the person to my right and find that I'm pinned underneath a large beam that had fallen from the ceiling. Visibility is low as the explosion plunged us all into darkness.
"Ste-" I croak out, finding that my throat is raw and my voice is unsteady. I cough out as much dust as I can and try again. "Steve?" Still shaky, not very loud, but the shape beside me shuffles under the debris. I can just barely reach him with my fingers and I pull at the fabric of his clothes. "Steve!" I manage to yell out. He groans again but at least I know he's alive. For now.
"Rogers! Evans!" I hear Tony's voice from somewhere up above us but I can't see anything through the dark.
"Tony!" I call back, hoping he can hear me over the sound of the burst water pipe and the fire. Fire? I try to shift under the beam pinning me down by my legs but when I try to shove it off pain shoots up my left arm so swiftly that it makes me nauseous. "We're here!" I hear the mechanical whirring of his suit above me and the next thing I know large beams are being lifted off of me and thrown through the air. Beam by beam I feel the weight being lifted off of me and I finally am able to angle closer to Steve.
"Steven Grant Rogers, so help me God if you're dead," I begin as I reach him and gingerly shake him with my uninjured arm. After a horribly long thirty seconds, he lifts his head just barely and turns towards me.
"I'm not dead, Evans," his voice is so faint I barely hear him. "'M okay." His words are jumbled together as he mumbles.
"You look like shit," I reply as I lean backwards, relieved that he's at least responsive now. His whole face is beat up and bloody. His right eye so swollen that he can't open it and his left eye is already turning purple. As the relief washes over me it's accompanied by an intense fatigue. Suddenly this ruined warehouse seems like a five star hotel and I feel like I could drift off to sleep at any moment.
"Look who's talking," he grunts back at me. I can hear Tony and Peter above us as they work to dig us out of the rubble and vaguely wonder how they managed to get out so quickly. Then there's a third voice and it takes me a moment to realize that Sam is gliding through the air above us as well, joining in the rescue mission.
"I'm... just going to... take a nap.." I begin slowly, my eyes drifting shut of their own accord.
"Kit, don't go to sleep. You hit your head pretty hard," Steve's voice seems to come to me from underwater. Are we underwater now? I feel him grab my injured arm but the pain doesn't really resonate with me. I'm far away from this place, drifting off towards rest and relief. "Katherine!" I hear him say before my world goes completely black, I think he's yelling, but he sounds so far away that I can't possibly respond to him. He'd never hear me from this distance anyways.