A/N: DON'T KILL ME! I KNOW IT'S LATE! To answer your question, no, you didn't miss a chapter. This one starts with a flash forward. But hey, how 'bout that new Ultron trailer amirite?
"If I turn into another,
Dig me up from under
What is covering
The better part of me."
~Dig
A series of ear-splitting rips tore through the air as metal was rent from screeching metal. The entire panel of glass behind her shattered, a particularly concussive blow sounding through the room, fragments pelting her prone form in a deadly mockery of torrential rain. The high pitched shrieking of the arc reactors firing on all sides crashed together with the enraged, frantic yells in one cacophonous blur.
Chaos.
She tasted something bitter mixed with the blood in her mouth. The whole floor of the high-rise shook, and Avery rolled out of the way just in time to miss a layer of drywall plummeting down from the ceiling. She screamed as an energy beam grazed her shoulder, cauterizing the flesh as quickly as it was sliced open.
They were everywhere. And they knew. It was over before it even started. Punch, kick, shield throw, energy blast, missile fire- they countered everything with literally no effort. It was like they knew every move that would be made before it was made.
She had to get out-she needed to-
One of them saw her trying to scramble toward the door. It stopped in mid-step, started toward her with inhuman speed, and raised its glowing hand. Her scream died in her throat as enormous mass of green tackled it from the side, sending them both through the wall into the opposite corridor. Three more blurs of metal rushed after them.
The room lit up in a familiar electric blue flash. A sickening noise- half grunt, half scream- accompanied it, and Avery turned to catch the billionaire fall to the ground. Before she had time to think, two more electric flashes lit up the room- one soldier, then another.
The battered, bloody heroes were losing.
They were dying.
And no one was coming to help them.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
72 Hours Earlier
Avery was feeling extremely meek.
The full-blown grandeur of Avengers Tower loomed above her, hundreds of feet taller than anything else in the New York cityscape. She was pretty sure its size topped the Empire State Building, which they had passed on the taxi ride there. The sleek, streamlined design of the Tower was surpassed only by the gleaming of its thousands of windows, blinding anyone who dared to behold the cubicle of Tony Stark.
She maintained her position in the two men's shadows as Steve led the way to the door. Noticing them approach the Tower, a few New Yorkers on the sidewalk cast furtive glances in their direction, wondering if the blonde man in normal-looking clothes could possibly be their beloved Captain. Sam and Avery, his yet unknown companions, were also given curious up-downs.
For all its beauty, the Tower's front door didn't look very secure. It consisted of a mere sheet of glass no thicker than a car's windshield. Avery was just wondering how it could possibly prevent any kind of intruder- one with superpowers or otherwise- from breaking in, when the sunlight illuminated delicate metal filaments running through its entirety. It was like a giant transparent circuit board.
She ventured a guess that an unwanted touch would not result in a pleasant experience.
A blue-tinted panel about the size of a textbook was situated just to the right of the door. Without hesitation, Steve placed a well-practiced hand on it, and the door slid upward almost instantaneously.
Sam whistled. Avery blinked.
The sheer enormity of the building wasn't any less surprising when they got inside. Its open concept architecture and upscale design echoed what the inside of the plane had looked like- clearly, no expense had been spared. Avery noted that they had entered the lobby. The sunlight streaming in through the far window whispered of the amazingly scenic views that would meet them on the upper levels.
She was feeling kind of intimidated. As if dealing with a bunch of superheroes wasn't enough, now she was going to meet a world-famous billionaire superhero.
"It is a pleasure to see you again, Captain Rogers," a warm, British-accented voice acknowledged them.
"Thanks, JARVIS," Steve said happily to no one in particular. Sam looked at Avery, who, with a knitted brow and half smile, pointed upwards- the voice had come from above them. Sam returned the curious smile.
Steve saw them grinning at each other. "Tony's AI system. JARVIS, this is Sam and Avery."
"Oh, I've heard. Lovely to meet you both," the voice said.
"You, too, JARVIS," Sam replied amicably. At the same time, Avery said, "Hi, JARVIS." Sam had begun eyeballing an enormously expensive-looking blue vase on a pedestal when Steve asked, "Could you tell us what floor Tony is on?"
At this moment, a feminine voice interrupted them. "No need, JARVIS. I'll take them up."
This voice had come from a definite direction. The trio turned and saw a pretty redhead woman in jeans coming toward them from the foyer. She had a sweet demeanor, and the kind of bright blue eyes that commanded attention. This, coupled with her erect posture and strong jawline, told Avery that she was a woman not to be messed with.
"Hi, Steve," she made a beeline for him and greeted him with a friendly hug.
"Hey, Pepper," he said fondly. She turned to the others before Steve could say anything else.
"The famed Sam Wilson, I presume," she said wryly as she went to shake his hand. "I'm Pepper, Tony's fiancé." The ridiculously huge diamond gleamed on her ring finger to prove her point.
"Great to meet you, Pepper," he said. "I thought I noticed a feminine touch in here," he gestured to the vase.
"Oh, yeah," she laughed, "I made sure my anniversary gift money was put to good use this year. Don't even ask what he got me last time." Pepper turned her attention to Avery.
Already feeling a little more at ease, Avery stuck out her hand and smiled. "Hi. Avery."
Pepper's brow quirked as they shook. "Now, let me guess. Laser vision? Mind reading? You don't strike me as the super-strength type...maybe telekinesis?"
Avery's eyes darted from her to Steve. "Oh, I'm not-"
"She had some information about the Winter Soldier that proved pretty helpful, so she came along," he answered for her.
"Oh," Pepper blinked. "Sorry. You get used to having super-friends around after a while. But that's great," she said honestly, apparently knowing about the whole situation with Steve's lost friend. "Let's get you and Tony going with the tracking algorithms."
The inside of the elevator told Avery she'd been right that the building was bigger than the Empire State- there were 105 buttons. One short ride later (the duration of which she spent thinking about how she probably smelled like hospital and looked like crap) the doors rolled open to reveal an even larger room than the foyer. On the other side, a man sat before six or seven hologram projections of machine plans with his back to them. He gave a little jolt when the elevator dinged, and the holograms disappeared almost instantly. When he spun in his swivel chair to face them, he looked slightly guilty. That vanished when he saw who his visitors were.
"Oh, say can you seeeee~" he sang loudly when he saw Steve, standing with a sweeping gesture that ended in a mock salute. Avery snorted. Noticing her and Sam, he said, "Hello, hello! Come in, come in. Mi casa es su casa."
Steve was trying in vain to hide a grin under a deadpan. The smirk on Pepper's face said plainly He's a dork, but he's my dork.
Tony Stark sauntered up to the group and grabbed Sam's hand. "Sam the man. Heard all about you. Thanks for helping out our little ball of freedom when the rest of us were busy," he slapped Steve on the shoulder twice.
Sam opened his mouth, but the billionaire was already on to Avery. "Why hello, little lady," he said as he seized her hand and kissed it. "You must be our resident informant for the day! Enchanté." He was the shortest man in the room, so they stood almost at eye level.
"Yeah, hi," she laughed uncertainly. He had a darker complexion with thick hair and a goatee shaped to match his persona. Handsome. He wasn't much different from the hundreds of pictures she'd seen on the covers of magazines and tabloids. The only thing they'd failed to capture was the gleam of sharp intelligence in his brown eyes. That, and the arc reactor was missing from his chest.
Not intending to let his guilty face from earlier slip by unnoticed, Pepper started, "So what were you working on, honey?" Tony quickly snaked an arm around her waist, pulled her close, and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Sweetheart, we have guests. Right now we have to focus on finding Steve's amnesiac buddy."
"Mmhmmm," she said, holding her peace for now.
"Have a seat, everyone," he gestured to the large sectional sofa near them. Once they had all followed his cue, he said, "JARVIS, tell Dummy to bring up some drinks."
"Certainly, Sir," the voice replied without a beat.
"Where's Bruce?" Steve asked. "I thought you said he was staying with you."
Banner? Avery inwardly wondered, suppressing a smile. Carmen's little brother had dressed up as the Hulk for Halloween. She would have to get him an autograph.
"Big guy's sleeping on another floor. He's been up for the past few nights doing some experimentation, so I left him alone. He'll probably be up in a little bit. So. Do enlighten me on the current state of events," he finished, plopping down on the white couch next to Pepper.
Avery looked to Steve and Sam for confirmation, then spoke. "Well, about a week ago, my car broke down in the middle of a road in D.C. While I was waiting for my ride to pick me up..."
Rehashing the whole story again was exhausting, so this time she stuck to the basics. Tony was surprisingly attentive. Avery had half expected him to jump in every few seconds with some witty comment, but he absorbed the information respectfully as she spoke. Avery appreciated it more than he knew. She was so emotionally drained and physically tuckered out at this point, she easily could have fallen asleep right there on the couch. She didn't have the energy to put up with a lot of crap.
Steve, Sam, and Pepper also listened closely- the latter visibly becoming upset when Avery touched on the extent of what the Soldier sustained in captivity.
"Oh, my God," she whispered to herself.
Avery felt hollow having to talk about it again.
Tony's eyes narrowed when Avery described the device that had almost electrocuted him to death. "Those bastards," he muttered. "It would take a lot of voltage to do that to someone like him." He stood, returning to the desk where they had found him. "Where did you say this happened?"
Avery fumbled for a street name, but settled on "Right outside the Air and Space Museum."
Another blue screen projection flew up and expanded to cover the whole wall. Tony was typing a series of coded instructions into the computer, and was pulling up a fuzzy image of a street.
Avery was so engrossed by what he was doing that she jumped when a one-armed robot set a bottle of beer down on the table in front of her. The arm tilted in her direction, spun, and the thing rolled away toward the elevator. She shook her head and looked back to the projection.
The image was black and white, and extremely poor quality, but Avery recognized it immediately.
"Got one," Tony said. "Most of these are encrypted. I think HYDRA knew we'd be looking."
The group was standing one by one and approaching it for a better look. Avery didn't have to move. She did so anyway, hesitantly going to stand behind Pepper.
"What is this, an ATM camera?" Steve asked.
"Museum security camera," Tony said.
In the picture, a blurred mass was in mid-flight through the air. A figure a little further down the street had the posture of one who had just thrown a discus, one of his arms with a photo-negative quality. Smaller figures were scattered all over the road, some lying in pools of dark liquid. Some still held their guns, but not many. Avery pinpointed the exact car she'd been hiding behind.
"JARVIS, access images taken of this street and the surrounding air territory from every public camera you can. If you can get a time frame, look for ones after 2 P.M. We're looking for a helicopter- privately owned, probably unregistered."
"On it, Sir."
More images began popping up. Even with the pixelated quality of most of them, the carnage in the street was very clear.
"Damn," Sam mumbled. When Avery looked over at Steve, his inscrutable expression spoke volumes.
Another ding sounded behind them.
"Come on in, Bruce, the party's just starting," Tony said without even turning around. A man with rumpled curly hair in a light blue button-down hovered by the elevator.
Avery tried not to get annoyed at his calling their mission a 'party' with her friend's life on the line. Steve beat her to saying something.
"Is everything always a party to you, Tony?"
"Only when you're here, Steve dear," he answered immediately. Avery and Steve glared at him in solidarity.
"JARVIS told me we had company," Bruce said sheepishly. He nodded at Avery, but seeing the images on the screen, neared without proper introduction. "What's this?"
Tony answered, "Avery here has been babysitting the Winter Soldier for the past few days, but HYDRA stole him. We're gonna help get him back."
"Ah," Bruce said interestedly, taking out his glasses.
Finally, pictures of the helicopter began cropping up. "Okay, JARVIS, we're gonna need a trajectory of the helicopter's flight path. Show us where they took him."
The images of the helicopter reordered themselves so quickly that Avery almost missed it. The screen shifted to a broad map of the United States, and immediately zoomed in to a red dot labeled "Greenville, South Carolina."
A few silent seconds ticked by. "Well, there you have it. Must be HYDRA's current base," said Tony. "Got any pictures of it for us?"
JARVIS pulled up a picture of a very normal looking office building.
"Looks like it's mostly underground," Bruce offered.
Sam added, "And if it's their base, you know it's gotta be heavily fortified."
"In that case, everyone better rest up tonight," Steve said authoritatively. "Tony, Bruce, Sam- we'll move out tomorrow."
He stood without a second glance and left the room, leaving everyone in silence as they watched him go.