Hey, I haven't updated this is forever, life happens, but whatever, you get three chapters in one this afternoon.
What's happened so far?
- Everyone's living in Malibu together
- Tony and Loki find Captain America
- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|
- Steve and Tony get off to a shaky start but they have a tentative friendship going at the moment
- Tony, Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane have helped to create an Einstein Rosen bridge.
- Darcy has been on Asgard, and helping to negotiate the JAM (Jotunheim, Asgard, Midgard) Agreement
- Hydra are worried about this development and think that it will affect their plans for controlling the world. The winter soldier gets woken up
- (Also, Sleipnir starts school)
19/01/20 - Chapter 1 of 3
Chapter Thirteen - Who the hell is Bucky?
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here today to celebrate the remarkable contributions to science, and to the future of this planet, made by five of the people in this room."
Steve joined in with the enthusiastic applause as he stared up at President Ellis. The President was standing behind a podium in front of the delighted (or rather mostly bewildered and sceptical) guests and looking amiably around at them all.
Steve, who, thanks to Jarvis's history lessons, had heard some of the disastrous things presidents had done in the past, had been wary of an Ellis being informed of the Einstein Rosen Bridge before other world leaders. However, as the bridge was on American soil and so was the UN (at which the other countries would be informed of the developments tomorrow) his knowledge was somewhat necessary.
Besides, there wasn't really anything much he could fault Ellis on. He had steered the country through the financial crisis and done his best to help all of the American people recover. The minimum wage had risen and the economy was booming. He had a good relation with the Native American peoples and had stopped developers and contractors (and the government) stripping them of more of their lands. He and his government had even managed to return some land and helped to control the flow of tourists desecrating sacred grounds. Through his work, money and ressources had been pumped into the middle east after the war on terror had ended, and schemes had been put in place to help the people there rebuild. Although the help wasn't always wanted by the people there, analysts suggested that this had led to a serious drop in the growth of extremist groups in the area. Of course, not everyone liked Ellis, but he was a skilled negotiator and expert about seeing everyone's needs and taking them into account. As a result, he had a very high approval rating, even from his critics.
The President thanked them all for being there, even remembering to acknowledge the SHIELD agents stationed up on the balcony that surrounded the room. Many important scientists and politicians were there so they were instrumental in protecting them.
Steve, officially, with his iron-clad fake ID and the face of some random person Loki knew from Asgard, was there as Tony, Loki, Bruce, Jane and Erik's bodyguard. Unofficially, Steve Rogers was there because he was interested in the event, wanted to come along to support his friends, and wanted to get out of the house. Thor, who didn't do well at stuffy events in which he was expected to keep still and quiet, had forgone being Jane's date in favour of babysitting duty.
So, here Steve was, at what was one of the most important dinners this century, sitting at a round table with his friends, and listening to President Ellis speak.
"But, before I present the awards to the five main scientists involved in this project, and before we all get tucked into the meal I'm sure you're all dying to get started on, I must say a few words about the worldwide and intergalactic logistics of this project." Ellis began.
"Tomorrow morning, the United Nations will be informed of the existence of the Einstein Rosen bridge. I am certain that the majority of countries will have a hard time believing it, as I'm sure many of you still do, having not seen the working bridge yourselves as I have," he gave a wry smile at this last remark.
"Each country and/or body of countries, will negotiate separately with Asgard and Jotunheim. I realise that this might seem counter-intuitive to the interests of the United States, or even a threat to national security, as we will not be able to control negotiations between our off-world allies and Russia, for instance. But, I promise you all, this course of action is only safeguarding America's interests.
"Trying to keep this from other nation states will only provoke war and lead to the destruction of our country, our planet, our home. They will already be against us after learning that the Einstein-Rosen Bridge has been built on American soil, and allowing other countries to lead their own negotiations will go some way in counteracting the bad will caused by this. In addition, any resources or intelligence shared by the Asgrdians or Jotuns will be closely monitored by everyone involved to insure that no weapons or-"
President Ellis slumped forwards over the podium.
Steve leapt to his feet automatically, ready to spring into action and help the President however he could.
Amongst the general murmur of confusion that sprang up in the next few seconds Steve's ears picked up a few muted clicking sounds. He grabbed Tony and threw them both to the floor without even realising what he was doing.
"What the fu-" Tony yelled before a hail of bullets assaulted their ears and the firing began in earnest.
Frantically, Tony tried to wriggle out from underneath Steve, obviously trying to reach Loki. Steve wouldn't let him, he'd only get himself killed and that wouldn't help anything. Jane, Bruce and Erik flung themselves under the table, but Loki was just standing there, in full view, uncaring of the bullets raining down on them.
Bruce was gripping the table leg with a ferocious determination as his skin rippled an eerie green colour. Jane, with tears in her eyes, was bleeding heavily from her left shoulder. Erik gripped Jane tightly while clearly staring with horror at where Loki was standing.
But. Wait…
Had the shooting stopped? The sound of gunfire seemed muted somehow and now Steve could clearly hear people shrieking, sobbing and - he took a deep breath when he recognised something he had never hoped to hear again - choking on their own blood.
He poked his head out from under the table. A small pellet hit him gently on the nose and pinged onto the floor.
He looked up. The bullets seemed to be caught in some sort of green mist. They were moving still, but after hitting the mist they slowed down to a snail's pace.
Steve took a closer look at Loki. His nose was bleeding heavily and he had clearly been shot in several places, but he had an expression of utmost concentration on his face.
He had bought them some time, but he clearly wouldn't be able to protect them forever.
Steve looked wildly up at the SHIELD agents on the balcony above them, still so determinedly firing on the guests. Everyone here had walked straight into a trap, but who would have been clever enough to have designed such a thing? How had they all managed to dispose of the real agents who were meant to be guarding them? Were they real SHIELD agents? How had they managed to organise this, to get this past Fury? Was Fury involved in this?
He stared at the President. Ellis was slumped over the podium, staring blankly at the crowd, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. His bodyguards lay dead on the stage beside him.
He had been assassinated. And not by the SHIELD Agents with their heavy duty guns either. This was the precise work of a sniper. Someone like Bucky could have made a shot like that.
He caught movement on the balcony out of the corner of his eye.
Ah. A sniper, probably the very same one who had just done Ellis in, had his gun aimed directly at Loki's head.
Steve jumped up on top of the table and launched himself at the balcony, throwing himself through the mist and exposing himself to the bullets of the agents.
He didn't know if the mist would be able to stop the sniper's bullet, and he wasn't about to wait and find out.
The masked and goggled sniper took a step backwards and lowered his rifle as Steve grasped onto the railing and clambered over them, clearly waiting for the agents to do their jobs and deal with him, pepper him with more that the… four bullets that they'd managed to hit him with on his ascent up to the balcony.
A whir of repulsors behind him explained why the SHIELD agents had decided to ignore him. Technically, Tony hadn't been allowed to bring his suit, no one had been allowed to take any weapons after all, but since when did Tony Stark let rules apply to him?
The man took advantage of Steve's momentary distraction to launch himself at him with lightning-fast speed. Steve didn't have time to block properly and the assassin's arm hit his jaw with the force and mercilessness of an iron bar.
Steve threw away his confusion but before the assassin's fist could make contact with his face again, a blow that Steve knew he would have blocked that time, the assassin stopped short, threw his rifle to the ground, and darted off down a corridor.
Steve was up in a flash and hot on the guy's tail.
The sniper was alarmingly fast, and Steve might actually have had trouble keeping pace had he been in peak physical condition. As it was, the four bullet wounds were slowing him down considerably and he was having difficulty keeping up. The sniper began to pull ahead.
Steve hurtled down the corridors at breakneck speeds, heart hammering in his chest, not even stopping to open doors and just ploughing straight through them instead. He took no notice of the splintering wood and the crunch of plaster that he left in his wake, Though, by the holes in the doors that were still swinging when he broke through them, the assassin seemed to be doing the same. This was actually one of the only signs that Steve was going in the right direction, two sharp corners ago he had lost sight of the man.
One of them.
He could hear everything around him, every slight detail, thanks to his superhuman abilities. It threatened to overwhelm him, but he focused on what he was looking for, ignored the screaming from downstairs, the ping of pullets hitting metal, and tuned into the irregular creaks ahead of him.
He came to dead end that led into a stairway. Damn. Up or down? He listened. This guy was good, very good, for such bulk apparently he could move in near silence when he wanted to. He heard a slight creak from above him. Up.
Steve flew up the stairs, taking them four at a time, and pushed open the creaky door to arrive onto an empty roof. The door slammed behind him. Here, he could hear nothing except for the rush of traffic and the sound of distant screams below. Where-
A huge weight slammed down onto him and knocked the air out of his lungs. The man seemed to have attached himself to Steve's waist, clinging to his back like a limpet, and without Steve's enhanced instincts he wouldn't have been able to block the blade that came for his throat with a deadly precision.
The blade went spinning off over the roof.
The man then went with the technique of trying to snap his neck. As Steve ducked and flipped him over his head he marvelled at the guy's strength, he'd never needed to worry about someone breaking his neck before, but in the split second the man had tried it Steve's instinct had kicked in, letting him know that if he didn't stop him chances were he wouldn't be getting out of this alive.
The assassin was fast and rolled over as he fell, bringing his leg up to kick Steve square in the jaw.
He tasted blood.
Oh. It was on.
The man sprang up only to meet Steve's uppercut that sent him sprawling backwards again.
The assassin got to his feet and pulled another knife from his belt. His mask had been knocked off and Steve could see that his chiselled jaw was clenched in determination. That was better, at least, Steve thought absently as the two men studied each other, poised to see who would be the first to strike. At least now he could gauge a tiny shred of emotion from the man.
The man struck out with his knife but Steve was ready for him. He blocked the knife on instinct and punched him hard in the gut. The man didn't react except to take a step backwards to brace himself.
The next thing Steve knew the assassin had flipped the knife into his other hand and was driving it towards his neck. Steve caught his wrist before the blade could hit home and grabbed the man's other fist that had been about the make contact with his jaw.
What to do now?
Oh well, Steve thought, and headbutted the man. The only problem was that the man seemed to have the same idea.
The impact made Steve's ears ring and he found himself letting the man go and stumbling backwards. Through the spots in his vision he saw the assassin rip his goggles (cracked, thanks to Steve's forehead) off and throw them away.
The man frowned at him, clearly assessing his next move, but all Steve could do was stare.
He felt like his heart had caught in his throat, like a pit of ice had settled in his stomach.
"Bucky?"
"Who the hell is Bucky?" The man asked, frowning, whipping his head round to make sure that Steve wasn't talking to anyone else. His voice was the right pitch, but his accent was almost gone, he sounded dead.
"You!" Steve exclaimed as Probably-Bucky-Even-Though-Bucky's-Dead-So-What-The-Hell? threw himself at him. Steve allowed himself to be pushed backwards, focusing only on blocking his blows, defending himself, he couldn't allow himself to hurt the man with the face of his friend.
"I do not recognise that designation," the man said shortly, kneeing Steve in the stomach.
"Oof, come on, Buck, remember me, Steve Rogers, the tiny punk who was always getting into fights in back alleys, we met in 1924 when I-"
Bucky's fist stopped an inch away from Steve. "You have been my handler?" he asked, a flicker of fear in his eyes.
"What? No! What does that even mean? We were friends!"
"I do not understand." Bucky stated, clearly torn between clocking Steve and shrinking away from him.
"Who do you think you are?" Steve asked desperately.
"The Asset," he replied, before tilting his head to one side. Steve was still trying to frantically process the last piece of information and only just managed to roll out of the way in time before the asset kicked him again.
"What?" he demanded, but Bucky didn't respond, instead stalking towards him with a deadly determination.
What followed next was a flurry of punches and kicks that ended up with Steve on the floor, unable and unwilling to fight back.
But where he expected the next punch to come there was nothing. He looked up at Bucky, his eyes were flickering rapidly about him and his limbs were trembling but he wasn't moving.
"Steve!" He heard Loki's voice and Bucky's immobile form floated a few feet away.
"Don't hurt him!" Steve begged, dragging himself to him feet to stare desperately at Loki. "He's my friend… or at least, I think he is…"
Loki raised an eyebrow.
"He was punching your lights out, buddy," Tony said, landing on the roof beside him. "Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's how friendship works."
"No, Tony, look at him. Really look at him." He had to make Tony see, had to make him understand, had to be sure that what he was seeing was real.
He watched Tony look over to where Bucky was becoming more and more frantic, struggling desperately to escape from Loki's magic.
Tony paused. "Well. Just because he looks like your old friend doesn't mean that-"
"But what if he is? He said his name was 'The Asset'." Steve took a deep breath. "Tony, even if he isn't Bucky, we need to help him."
Boom, next chapter has also been uploaded.