"Damn it, damn it damn it!" A loud noise forced the group's attention away from Peter's transformation to the back of the room. Steve turned just in time to see Bruce pick up a chair and throw it against the back wall. "I am so damned tired of this!" He shouted, as he turned to face them, his hands clenched, his eyes a brilliant shade of yellow. The first warning sign his anger was about to take over.
"Bruce," Steve said, as gently as he could, "We're all frustrated. I don't know what happened, but please stay focused…"
Not now Bruce. We can't deal with that on top of everything else...
"I should have gone back with her. I'd be with her…" Bruce growled. "And they took Peter. We've lost him…" Steve had no idea what he was talking about but Bruce's words brought up the hard truth he wasn't the only one with internal struggles. Everyone here was pushing back against the fear they would never see home or their loved ones again.
Steve made what he hoped was a barely perceptible nod to Wanda. She took a few steps in Bruce's direction, then stopped. They had to be careful.
"Bruce, they were determined, these people, whatever they are, to bring us here and it wouldn't have mattered where you were," He moved a few paces in Bruce's direction, doing his best to hold his attention while Wanda slid up behind him.
"Aargh!" Bruce yelled again, and this time a monitor joined the chair.
"Doctor Banner, please, this will not help. We need you," T'Challa said. His low melodious voice stopped Bruce long enough for Wanda to make her connection. The motion of her fingers seemed to mesmerize him. For an awful few seconds, Steve thought he would push her away, but his eye color returned back to normal. A few deep breaths and he was back.
"I'm sorry," Wanda said. She apologized every time she did this.
"I'm sorry myself," Bruce said, leaning back against the wall. "The other guy hasn't been out for a while. It's one damn thing after another. Natasha and I had a fight, and it was so damn stupid. I'm not her boss, she doesn't have to do what I say, and now I'm stuck here in God knows where and who knows when I'll see her again. Every time we get close to something, something else happens... and she's…"
T'Challa stared at him for a few moments. Steve realized he had yet to encounter the personality Bruce carried inside him. "I'm sure, when this is over, you will be able to make things right with her. We all had unfinished business, but for now, all we can do is move forward. Remember, we are all smart, strong people. All is not lost," he said. T'Challa didn't know it, but he was keeping them sane.
Bruce stood back and nodded. He seemed out of breath. He picked up the monitor which to no one's surprise, remained in one piece, and carried it back to the table.
"The personality, the program that was Regina has apparently enveloped Peter," T'Challa said.
"The first thing we need to do is find Peter himself, see if he's all right," Bruce said, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"How the hell do we do that?" Steve asked. "Even if we tore the walls apart, they'd just snap back together again. Wanda could do this," he said, pointing to the small bit of gold matter on the table. " But it took a long time to break it down to that and we're not even sure what it is or what it does…" He stopped in mid-sentence distracted by the small blinking red light on T'Challa's ring.
"Your ring. It's blinking," he said.
T'Challa raised his finger up to stare at it. "Thor knows we sent a signal. Where he is at this moment or if he is coming here, who knows…."
"No, I mean it's blinking in a pattern!" Steve rushed over and ignoring all sense of propriety took the King's hand to hold it up so he could see it better.
"So it is," T'Challa affirmed and not at all offended at Steve's actions. "What does it mean?"
"It could be a code. One I haven't seen used in years. Small short bursts, then longer bursts. Dots and dashes. It's from Bucky. He's ok!" He hadn't allowed himself to hope but now it washed through him like a spring. He's ok.
"Morse code?" Bruce asked.
"Yes... it's repeating. Am ok .'" More relief poured through Steve " With Thor. Am outside. Take out Regina by any means necessary. Will do the rest."
"We have to send a signal back. Can we do that?" Bruce asked.
T'Challa considered Steve's question for a moment, then walked over to the table that had been his workstation and picked up some tiny instruments. "For the White's Wolf's arm. There must be a way to disrupt this signal." After a few moments of tinkering, he carefully removed the red gem but it continued to blink. Underneath was a small mechanism. With a few small taps, he inserted the tool, and the blinking stopped. Pulling it back, they started again.
"Ok, dots are short, dashes are long. You understand?" Steve asked.
T'Challa nodded as Steve relayed a message he knew sounded like utter nonsense to the people listening. "I said message received. Understood. Will comply. Wait for our signal ."
T'Challa carefully put the ring back together. More dots and dashes.
"Standing by," Steve translated the final message, collapsing against the table. He hadn't realized until that moment how emotionally exhausted he was and how hard he had been holding everything back. A realistic image of Bucky being torn away from him flashed in front of his eyes but it was replaced by the sight of finding him again in Wakanda. Thank you, Wanda.
"Now we understand what we should do, but how do we do it without hurting Peter?" Wanda asked.
Steve regained control of himself and turned back to face his team. The four of them stared at each other for a long moment before Steve spoke. "It seems the only way to get around inside wherever this is, is to be a hologram. You made the hologram of Peter. Would it be possible to make one of me and could you make it self-aware so we can relay messages back and forth?"
Bruce and T'Challa stared at each other taking in what Steve had said. "Like Armin Zola," Bruce said. "It's possible. The hologram, we can do. The rest…we'll do our damnedest, but Steve, this is dangerous."
"It's the only way. I have to get in there and we might as well have one ready for me when whatever happens in there, happens. You two need to stay where you are, keep doing what you're doing and talk me through it, and Wanda has to protect you in case Peter, or Regina, or whoever the hell that is, comes back throwing lightning bolts again. It has to be me," Steve said.
"If you are sure," T'Challa said. "This might be a one-way trip. We don't want to face it, but Peter could be…"
"We have to try," Steve said cutting him off. "Someone needs to get in there and I'm the most likely candidate. Wanda, do what you did before when you enlarged that vent. It has to be big enough for me to squeeze through."
She nodded and returned to the corner of the room and knelt down by the vent, directing gentle streams of energy toward the wall.
"The template for the hologram is in the system, that won't take much time. As far as the rest, all I have is the knowledge from the research our scientists have made and that is a theory which we can use in addition what we have seen here," T'Challa said. Bruce was already at work, a new golden stream of data was being put together before their eyes. "We can attempt to put them together and see what happens."
"That's enough," he said.
The two men worked as quickly as they could, adding data to the stream so it grew longer and longer. They stopped to confer with one another from time to time, making quick decisions and but had to backtrack once. Something forced them to erase part of the stream and start over. Steve was getting impatient then they asked him to stand still so they could scan him and record his voice. More data entry and the stream turned in mid-air, almost looking alive, the same as Peter's and Regina's. They managed to fit in a listening device for him, in case the hologram thing didn't work out. It felt clunky because they had to make it out of the materials they had available. It didn't feel right, but he couldn't complain about comfort. It was time.
"Thank you, gentlemen. If I don't make it out, use whatever force, whatever is necessary to break down these walls. We have to get Peter out of there. Do you understand?" Bruce and T'Challa exchanged a glance, then nodded. They understood.
He walked back to Wanda. Just as before, she had enlarged the vent. It looked big enough for him to crawl into.
"Look after them. If I don't make it, tell Bucky…"
"You'll make it," she said. "And you will tell him yourself. Now go."
He knelt down to enter the vent, then crawled into darkness.