Chapter 19: Finding Bucky
I saw Steve's parachute bloom and when I reached the same height as him I yanked my own cord. The parachute opened with a woosh, slowing me down with a yank that nearly ripped my shoulders out of their sockets. I managed to figure out how to direct myself and I stayed close on Steve's tail as he descended.
He hit the ground with a thump and stripped off his parachute. He was poised like he was ready to streak off in the direction of the factory when I landed behind him with a thump and the sound of rippling fabric. Steve turned around to look at me and his eyes widened.
"Josie! Oh my god, what were you thinking?" he asked worriedly, rushing to my side. "Are you hurt? Did you land okay? What were you thinking? You're crazy!"
"I'm fine, Steve," I assured him, reaching up and placing a hand on his shoulder. "And I know what I'm doing more than you might think."
Steve shook his head. "Josie I know you can throw a punch, but this is different, this is war-"
"But I'm here now," I said pointedly. "What are you going to do? Abandon me in enemy territory? I'm pretty sure the safest place for me to be is next to Captain America at this point."
Steve opened his mouth to argue, but I knew I'd won from the wheels turning behind his eyes. He knew he couldn't just abandon me here and run off, and if we waited here for Peggy and Howard to come back and get me, then he lost his chance to save Bucky and everything we all risked tonight was for nothing. If he let me come with him, then he could protect me and he still had a chance at saving Bucky.
It was the best solution.
"So many people are going to have my head for this," he mumbled, before flicking his head in the direction of the factory. "You stay right next to me, you understand?" he said seriously. I nodded. Unable to resist, I smiled and saluted.
"Aye aye, captain."
It was surprisingly easy to get close to the factory. There were no guards outside the perimeter of the gates and the floodlights didn't reach far into the trees. Even if they had, the mist covering the ground provided us with cover on our approach.
We crouched by the road leading in to the factory, watching as headlights came closer. A pair of motorcycles, the escort, whizzed past. Trucks rumbled along behind them.
"That's our way in," I breathed, and Steve nodded. We waited until the last truck was almost gone and then darted out into the road, lunging up over the back of the truck and disappearing inside. The pair of us landed in a tangled heap. I groaned as a heavy, serum-enhanced leg landed across my own.
"… die Hölle?"
Two HYDRA soldiers were sitting casually in the back of the truck on crates. They wore masks that covered their entire heads, but I had the feeling that behind the dark goggles their expressions were complete incredulity.
Steve nodded to them. "Fellas."
They lunged for us. One of them came at me. I twisted and raised my arms, leaning to avoid his outstretched hands. My palms hit his chest and I managed to redirect his momentum, sending him flying over the back of the truck to face-plant in the road. Steve punched his assailant three times and then tossed him out too.
We exchanged glances.
"Well, that went surprising well," Steve observed.
We rolled undetected through the gates and into the factory. I tried to listen, catching snippets of conversation as we passed, but the engine was too loud to get more than a few scattered words.
"Get behind me," Steve said as the truck began to reverse, probably pulling into a loading dock. I did as he requested, crouching behind him as he hid behind his shield. The truck stopped and there was a flapping sound as the fabric covering the back of the truck was pulled back.
"Eh?"
Steve's shield snapped out, catching the HYDRA soldier in the chest and sending him flying back several feet into the loading dock. Steve lunged out of the bed of the truck and I followed him out. We crept around the side of the loading bay towards an open field lined with tanks. Steve held out an arm, keeping me behind him protectively as he began to creep through the lines.
"Get ready to run," Steve said, and broke into a sprint across some open area towards another tank parked next to a low building.
"How many tanks to they need?" I muttered irritably as Steve hopped onto the tank. He turned around to give me a hand up, but I leaped up on my own. I caught a glimpse of the surprise on Steve's face before I jumped over onto the roof, turning back to face him.
"You coming?" I asked.
The teasing wasn't quite what I expected, but it was hard to avoid when I had so much adrenaline running through my system, making my head spin dizzily with confidence. My instincts were still there, bubbling under the surface and waiting to be turned lose the moment the first punch was thrown. Yori and my dad were the ones who had taught me how to fight, and I looked forward to making them proud today.
Steve and I kept low as we ran across the top of the building towards a row of window. I crouched down and leaned, checking to make sure no one was coming. Steve slid the edge of his shield between the window and the lintel and gave it a tap, yanking it free with a wooden creak. We slid inside the building and shut the window behind us so as not to raise suspicion.
"Well, we broke into the HYDRA factory," I murmured. We could either go left or right. "So… now which way?"
"This way should take us deeper in," Steve said, gesturing to the right. He headed that way and I followed, keeping close just like he'd asked.
We reached a metal door, one that wouldn't have looked out of place on a submarine except for the pane of glass bolted into the middle at head height. Through it I could see a large factory floor, but not much else. A HYDRA guard lingered nearby.
Steve tapped on the door with his shield. The HYDRA soldier heard and came over, opening the door and poking his head out.
"Was-"
Steve slammed the door on his head and I punched him in the face for good measure. The German crumpled. I grabbed him by the back of his armored vest and heaved him through the door with a grunt. Steve and I slipped through, onto the factory floor.
The nearest guard had his back to us, so we were able to dart out of our little corner and into a couple of rows of whatever-they-weres. I suspected they were rockets of some kind, although they didn't look like any rockets I'd ever seen.
Past the rockets were lines of huge bombs. I shuddered at the thought of any of them ever leaving this factory, but I knew that if we sat here and tried to destroy all of them we'd end up getting caught and we'd never get out of here, much less get any of the 107th out.
"What on earth…"
Resting on a table at the end of the rows of bombs was a wheel of some sort fitted with glowing blue cartridges around the edges. Smaller versions of the cartridges were lined up nearby, looking like they were waiting to be fitted onto wheels of their own. I couldn't for the life of my figure out what was making the pieces glow blue.
Steve picked up one of the cartridges and examined it, turning it over in his hand. Whatever it was it seemed stable – the glow didn't even flicker as Steve jammed it into his pocket.
"Maybe Howard can tell us what these are," he whispered, and I nodded, grabbing another two and shoving them into a pocket on my jumpsuit near my knee. Howard was prone to blowing things up when he played with them – I suspected he might need more than one.
"The prisoners have to be nearby," I reasoned. "If they're being kept alive," and I had to believe they were or I'd lose it right here in the middle of the HYDRA factory, "then I bet they're being put to work. They won't be far from here. Easier transport, less chance of someone slipping away."
Steve nodded to a small door nearby. It had a sophisticated-looking lock on it, the kind that you had to type in a key code to get through. It was by far one of the most secure-looking doors scattered around the room.
"That looks like a good place to stick prisoners," Steve said, and I nodded.
We hurried over. There was no way we could guess the key code, and we didn't have time to sit there and try. Steve slammed his shield down on the box where the keypad was. It sparked and there was a faint click as the lock snapped open.
Quietly, Steve opened the door and slid inside. I followed, pulling the door shut behind me.
The room was filled with round cages, about five men in each. Bars were stuck in the ground and attached at the top to a catwalk that covered most of the room. A pair of soldiers patrolled. Most of the men looked exhausted and filthy, and I couldn't blame them. They'd been here for months.
I also noticed that there were far less than reports said had been taken and couldn't help but be worried. What if Bucky was one of the ones who'd already succumbed?
"I'll take that one, you take that one?" Steve suggested, pointing between the two guards on the catwalk. One of them was near the middle of the room and another was on the fringes near a staircase down to the floor.
I nodded and moved. Steve grabbed my arm, looking at me. "You're sure you can handle it?"
If it was anyone else I would have scowled and snapped that I could handle it, but I knew Steve was genuinely worried about me. I smiled back.
"Relax," I said soothingly. "It's just one guy."
I slipped away, staying in the shadows around the edges of the room. I ignored the stairs. I knew my shoes on the grate would give me away no matter how hard I tried to sneak. Instead I took a running leap at one of the walls. I hit it with one foot and bounded up and off of it, leg extended. My foot connected with the beck of the startled HYDRA agent and he went face-first onto the grating. I landed on my knees straddling him and grabbed the back of his mask, slamming his head into the grate for good measure a couple of times until I was sure he was out.
I looked up and saw that Steve had taken out his guard as well. "Keys," he called to me from across the room, holding up a pair he'd filched from the guard's belt. I checked my own guard and pulled an identical pair from his hip.
"Who're you supposed to be?" called one of the men in the cage below Steve.
"Uh… Captain America?" Steve replied uncertainly as he stood up.
A British voice replied, "I beg your pardon?"
Steve and I climbed down from the catwalk and onto the factory floor, keys at the ready. I fitted them into the lock on the nearest cage and opened it up before hurrying on to the next cage.
"Hold on," said one of the men in my second cage, surprised. "You're a girl!"
"Nicely done," I said drily, and opened up the cage. I finished up my side and hurried through the crowd over to Steve, who was on his last cage, the one with his guard sprawled on top of. A man in a bowler hat came out first. His eyes lingered on a nearby Asian man.
"Are we taking everybody?" he said coolly.
The Asian man grabbed his dog tags pointedly. "I'm from Fresno, ace," he snapped.
"Is there anyone else?" Steve asked as we all solidified into a mass and moved towards the door. "I'm looking for a Sergeant James Barnes."
"There's an isolation ward off the factory but no one's ever come back from it," said the same British voice as before. Now I could see it was a man with a mustache and a red beret. Going by the pin on it, I pegged him as from a Parachute Brigade.
"The tree line is northwest, eighty yards past the gate. Get out fast, and give them hell," Steve said, moving closer to the door. "We'll meet you guys in the clearing with anyone else we find."
"Josie?"
I whipped around at the sound of my name, but it wasn't the person I was hoping. Instead a small, muscular man with thick sideburns and a rugged face muscled his way through the crowd.
My eyes widened. "Jimmy Howlett?" I said incredulously. "How in hell did you get from Vancouver to here of all places?"
"Bad luck and bad timing," Jimmy said, swaggering forward and dragging me into a hug. "C'mere."
"It's good to see you," I said, returning the hug and grinning. I felt Jimmy nod over the top of my head at Steve, who was watching us curiously. "He know what he's doing?" he asked me, and I knew without even looking that he was shooting Steve the stink eye.
"Yeah," Steve replied for me. "I've knocked out Adolph Hitler over two hundred times."
With that he turned and headed for the door. I lingered slightly, pulling myself out of Jimmy's grip and assuring the men, "He's actually highly qualified."
"Josie?"
"Coming!" I hustled after Steve.
We didn't make it far before an alarm bell sounded the escape. I wasn't surprised – I doubted the men were being very subtle after having been caged up for months on end. I couldn't blame them.
The factory floor flooded with HYDRA agents responding to the alarm. The chaos actually worked for us, in a way. Everyone had some station they need to get to that was far more important than us. The only people who tried to stop us were the ones in our direct path.
Steve shoved one HYDRA agent into a wall with his shield while I ripped the mask off a second one and punched him in the face. I shoved him into the wall and growled in his face, "Isolierstation?"
Stunned and with his head pounding, he pointed shakily in the direction of a door painted a peeling green color, up several floors. It did not look at all welcoming, which I assumed was kind of the point. I punched the HYDRA soldier a couple more times to knock him out.
"Steve, this way," I called, and ran for the door, Steve on my heels. We knocked out or tossed aside any agents that came at us, taking to the catwalk and climbing above the confusion. The door didn't have a lock, so we ducked inside and shut it tightly behind us. The noise from the factory dimmed with the door shut and I could finally take the time to actually consider our surroundings.
Not that it made me feel much better. The walls were brick and the floors were slick. The whole place smelled damp and musty and the chill in the air made the hairs on my arms rise up. Small windows let in only a little light that was tinted green and brown from the dirt caking the panes.
"Come on," Steve said, pulling out his gun and holding it ready as we moved along the hallway. It took a sharp left not far down and we turned, ready for anything…
A tiny man ran out of a room to the left of the hallway. He was dressed in a suit and had a hat on his head and a briefcase in his arms. Definitely not a soldier, probably one of their scientists. He took one look at us a fled.
Steve and I ran after him, but he vanished around a corner. We slowed to a stop – one scientist wasn't going to make much of a difference to our escape. Instead, Steve peered into the room he'd just run out of before entering cautiously. I trailed after him, peering around.
This was definitely a lab of some sort. There were clear glass cabinets scattered around with vials and bottles filling them, labeled in German. Some of them were chemicals I recognized, but some I'd never heard of. The light was just as bad in here, but I could see a surgical tray of scalpels, clamps, and syringes waiting beside a sink on one wall and I shivered at the thought of what they might be used for.
"Sergeant James Barnes, 32557038… Sergeant… 325570…"
I gasped. Bucky was strapped to a surgical table near the end of the room, a curtain covering anything beyond him. That didn't matter though, because Bucky was there and he was alive and that was the most important thing.
"Bucky," Steve and I breathed at the same time and rushed to either side of the table. Steve ripped the restraints away and tossed them aside with extreme prejudice. Bucky's blue eyes – I'd forgotten just how gorgeous that color was – were blown wide and unfocused. Slowly, they drifted towards Steve.
"Is… Izzat…?"
"It's me, it's Steve," Steve whispered, hovering over him.
"Steve… Steve…" A sloppy grin covered Bucky's face when he finally managed to focus on Steve's face.
"Come on, come on," Steve urged, dragging Bucky upright. Bucky swayed slightly as Steve dragged one of his arms over his own shoulders, supporting him. Bucky finally seemed to realize someone else was there. He struggled to focus on me.
"Hey… who's… who's…?" His eyes cleared slightly. "Belle? What the… what the hell're… Are you doing here?"
I shrugged and gave him a watery smile. "You asked me to keep an eye on Steve, so I'm keeping an eye on him. Come on, let's get us all out of here," I said, grabbing his other arm and dragging it over my own shoulders. Moving like possibly the weirdest team to ever enter a four-legged race, we staggered towards the door.
"Sakura, sakura, no yamo mo sato mo mi-watasu karigi. Kasumi ka kumo ka. Asahi ni niou…"
I froze. It was very faint, but I knew that song, and far, far worse, I knew that voice.
"Hold on," I said shakily, ducking out from under Bucky's arm.
"Josie, we've got to go!" Steve urged.
"Shh," I insisted. "Listen!"
"Sakura sakura hana zakari."
Finding the source of the noise, I moved towards the curtain covering the back of the room, almost afraid of what I'd find behind it. Reaching out carefully, I parted two panels of fabric and stepped behind them.
Lying there on a scarred steel table, half-illuminated by the light coming through a grungy window, lay my old friend, Yori Tsukuda.
"Yori!" I gasped, and flew to her side. Her eyes were just as unfocused as Bucky's, but she seemed to be coming out of whatever fugue the drug put her into much faster. Her eyes brightened and focused.
"Well well," she said weakly. "It took you long enough, Tora."
Shaking my head, I reached down, forcing a blade into my palm, and slit the straps holding her in place. Yori sat up weakly, her black, leathery, bat-like wings hanging limply on the table behind her. Like me, she was a mutant. Unlike me, she did not even remotely look human. That was why she usually wore a long coat and a mask.
I glanced around, hoping against hope that whenever she'd been captured HYDRA had taken those things and kept them close, otherwise I'd have a lot to explain when I stepped out from behind the curtain with her.
God was looking out for me, because I saw her ratty trench coat tossed casually over a desk with the oni mask leaning beside it. There was even a hat resting next to it, which was convenient.
"Josie, what's going on?" Steve called form behind the curtain.
Yori's head twitched in that direction, eyes glinting. "You brought company." I nodded. "Like us?"
"Uh…" I hesitated. "Sort of?"
Yori raised an eyebrow. "You'll explain that later," she informed me. I smiled slightly. Despite having just been rescued from an evil scientist, Yori was as blunt and commanding as ever.
"My sword?" she asked, squinting around. I looked around as well, but I couldn't see a single sign of Yori's beloved sword. I winced. She would not be pleased about that.
"I don't think it's here," I said quietly. Yori's lips tightened.
"Bastards."
"Josie?"
"Give me a second!" I called. I passed Yori the clothes from the desk. She gratefully pulled the coat on, covering her wings and her prehensile tail with the spade-like tip. She shoved her hair up under the hat and tied on the mask. Finally, she unfolded the cuffs so that the sleeves of her coat covered her naturally-blackened, pointed nails.
Once she was sufficiently covered, I shoved the curtain back. Yori staggered slightly as she took her first couple of steps. I quickly moved to her side and grabbed her, dragging her arm over my shoulder.
Steve's eyes widened when he saw the entirely-covered figure leaning on me, face hidden by the snarl of the demon on her mask. "What the-?"
"I'll explain later," I said, dragging Yori over to him and Bucky. Bucky seemed to have come back to himself a little bit, because his eyes widened when he saw me.
"… Are you a… hallucination, Belle?" he asked uncertainly. "Because I've been having those…"
"No, I'm as real as Steve is." I reached out and cupped his cheek so that he could feel me really, solidly there. He reached up and held my hand in place. Bucky didn't seem to know what to say to that. Instead he glanced at Steve. "Did you drag my Belle into an active war zone?" he demanded, looking highly annoyed. His grip on my hand tightened.
Steve winced. "She came on her own."
Meanwhile, I was just trying not to blush about the 'my Belle' comment. I felt Yori squeeze onto my wrist pointedly. I knew we'd be talking about that later as well.
There was an explosion from deeper within the factory. It rocked the ground under our feet.
"We need to go," Steve and I chorused.
… die Hölle? - … the hell?
Was- - What-
Isolierstation? – Isolation bay?
