Chapter 16
"How is she?" Pepper asked as she saw Steve walk off the elevator with Barry.
The super soldier looked at the red head before shaking his head. He stared at the ground, running his hand through his hair. "She's quiet as always. She's been getting little to zero sleep and she was on her laptop like always.
"Tracey's strong, but the last time I saw her like this it was after our dad died," Barry said, chewing his lip. He walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. "She's been looking through every possible street camera and database she can find looking for him. She blames herself."
"But it wasn't her fault," Natasha spoke up, furrowing her brow as she crossed her arms. "It was Burnow's fault. If he hadn't threatened her she wouldn't be in this mess. Neither would Bucky."
Skye bit her lip and stood up from her spot on the couch next to Mack and Bobbi. "I'm gonna go talk with her."
"We've already tried talking with her," Barry said, shaking his head. "I think she just needs time alone."
"She hasn't had any girl time," Skye pointed out. "I know you're her brother, Barry, but sometimes girls like to talk with other girls."
"I'll go with you," Natasha said, following the hacker to the elevator.
The rest of the group watched as the two women walked out of the floor. It was Trip who spoke up and broke the silence.
"How are you doing, Steve?" he asked. "I mean, Bucky's your best friend and all… I mean, we're all worried, but do you have any idea how we'll get him back?"
Steve shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. "I'm not sure…" he said, shaking his head. He walked over to the living room and fell into one of the armchairs. He ran a hand down his face and looked to his right when he felt a hand on his arm. He smiled lightly at Sharon before resting his head on the back of the chair. "I just can't get over the fact that he's back to being him."
"All he worked for," Clint said solemnly, lowering his head to look at his hands in his lap.
"So what's the plan, Steve?" Tony asked, crossing his arms as he looked at his teammate.
The blonde man sighed and shook his head. He remained silent for a few more moments. "We find a way to track down Burnow. Most likely he moved locations now that we know where he is. He'll know we'll try and get Bucky back while we try and stop him."
"The only thing we can do is come up with plans," Coulson said, stepping up in the conversation. "We need to come up with a plan to find him. Figure out what he's planning on doing." He looked to Steve. "You said Tracey told you Burnow was using her to get information from Hydra, correct?"
"Yes, but she didn't get much. She didn't know what he was planning either," the blonde soldier answered. "I don't think Burnow was planning on telling her anything."
"Well what did she get from Hydra's database?" May asked. "If he was using her to gather information for him, he had to have given her specific instructions and she had to have seen those files."
"May's right." Bobbi said, sitting up in her seat. "Tracey's smart. She had to have seen the files. More or less, she's in shock and didn't think about telling someone…"
Barry pursed his lips, nodding his head slowly. "I'll go ask her. Trace is strong and she'll do anything to help the mission no matter what gets in the way."
"Alright," Coulson said, nodding his head. "Let us know as soon as you can."
"Right…" Barry said, heading towards the elevator.
ooOOoo
"Tracey?" Skye called out as soon as she and Natasha walked off the elevator. She looked around the main area of the floor, searching for her fellow hacker. The only thing that she found was a golden retriever running up to them with his tail wagging. "Hi, buddy," she said, with a small smile as she scratched his head.
Natasha smiled and scratched the dog's head. "She's still in there I guess," she said, nodding to the hall that lead to the bedroom.
"Tracey?" the brunette called out again as they opened the bedroom door. She poked her head in and found the blonde woman sitting with her legs crossed on her bed. Her laptop was out in front of her and she was chewing her cheek as she always did when she was focused in her work. "Trace."
"Hmm?" Tracey hummed, snapping her head up and staring at the two women. "Oh uh…hey…"
"How are you feeling?" Skye asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
"Fine," Tracey said, turning back to the computer and furrowing her brow. She quickly skimmed her fingers across the keyboard as she typed some keys in. "Does Coulson or anyone need me?" she asked curiously.
"No," Natasha said, shaking her head as she sat next to the two hackers. "We came up here to see how you were doing."
"I'm fine," she said, nodding her head once. "Just busy."
"Yeah," Skye said, her eyes flickering to the computer's screen. On it was a live video footage of a street. People walking bye and going about their day. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to find any signs of Burnow…"
"You're looking for Bucky aren't you?" the brunette hacker asked, pursing her lips.
Tracey stayed silent for a minute before nodding her head. "Yes."
"You know, I know what you're going through…" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said slowly, staring at the blonde. The other hacker looked up at her friend, a questioning look on her face. Skye continued. "You're sad, angry, and confused. You're sad you couldn't help Bucky. Angry at Burnow. And confused as to what to do now. I was in a somewhat similar situation. One of our teammates, Ward, he betrayed us. It turned out he was Hydra. What was worse for me was that I had feelings for him."
"He was Hydra?" Tracey asked, eyebrows shooting up a bit. "What did you do?"
"We had to fight him and stop him and the rest of his Hydra friends," Skye answered. "We now have him locked up on the Bus. I'm not too happy about it, but unfortunately he's been…sort of helpful with some missions against Hydra. I'd rather throw him off and keep him somewhere far away to be honest."
"I bet…" Tracey said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Skye said, brushing it off. "Right now I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine," Tracey repeated what she had said previously.
"No you're not, Trace," Natasha spoke up, glaring at the blonde. Her face softened as she stared at her friend. "Tracey, you can't beat yourself up over what happened. What happened to Bucky was out of your hands."
"I could have stopped it!" Tracey protested. "If I had just told someone Burnow had contacted me. If I had not gone to see him, Bucky wouldn't have had to become the Winter Soldier again."
"It's not your fault, Tracey," Natasha pushed. "Some things are out of our control. We can't keep control of everything in our lives. We can't. What happened with your dad. What happened to Bucky. It was all Burnow's fault," she said, making sure the hacker was looking at her. She quickly stopped Tracey when she opened her mouth, shaking her head. "Not yours. You had no control of what happened. It's not your fault. What you can control is helping us come up with a plan to get Bucky back and stop Burnow."
Tracey stared at the red haired woman, her mouth set in a tight line and eyes brimmed with unshed tears. She nodded her head as she took a deep breath. "You're right…" She quickly stood up and gathered her laptop in her arms. "We need to stop Burnow and I'm not helping if I'm stuck up here."
Skye and Natasha smiled at the blonde as they followed her to the elevator. They froze when Barry walked off, staring in shock as he took a step back.
"Why do I always end up running right into people when I get off the elevator?" he said, rolling his eyes with a small chuckle. He looked at his twin sister and gave her a small smile. "Hey, Trace. How are you feeling?"
"Same as earlier. Sad, angry," she said, chewing her cheek. "But I'm ready to help with any plans on stopping Burnow."
"Well that's a coincidence then," her twin chuckled. "I came up here to ask you about the files Burnow wanted you to get. Come on," he said, turning right back around and onto the elevator.
ooOOoo
"So," Lance said, dragging out the word as he looked at Tracey, "you don't know what this guy wanted."
Tracey nodded her head. "Sorry. He just asked me to find some files. He only gave me the file ID number. Nothing else. But," she said quickly when she saw the faces of her teammates fall slightly. "But I was able to catch a glimpse at a couple. One was the formula for his super soldier serum. I guess Hydra wanted to keep it for themselves in case of a rainy day."
"Sounds like it," Tony said, folding his arms. "So A Bug's Life wants to continue creating super soldiers then? That's nothing we can't handle."
"Well that's not all he wants to do," the hacker spoke up. "He mentioned something about needing a file with whereabouts on a piece he needs for his new plans."
"He has new plans?" the billionaire exclaimed. "Of course he does. What's the new plans?"
"Do you honestly think he'd tell her?" Mack asked, raising a brow at the scientist. "I thought you were a genius."
"I am. And I'm thinking it's worth a shot that he let slip his plans to Kevin Flynn."
Tracey shook her head. "Sorry he didn't. He just told me to get the files."
"You didn't happen to get a look at what the file for the object he needed was, did you?" Jemma asked, giving a hopeful smile. Tracey pursed her lips and shook her head.
"What about the ID number?" Coulson asked.
"I didn't get to that one yet. He found out I had contacted you guys just as I was looking into it. Sorry."
"It's not your fault, Trace," Steve said, shaking his head. He gave her a small smile. "You did fine. We can still come up with a plan to find him and Bucky. Don't worry."
"So what is the plan?" Sam piped up, looking at the super soldier expectantly.
"I think our best shot is to scour the streets for any sign of Burnow's super soldiers, Burnow himself, or Bucky," Coulson said. "We can split into our previous teams from last time." He looked at the blonde hacker sitting between Sharon and Barry. "Tracey, you can go with Sam and Trip. They're going to need your help. You're able to get access into street cameras, right?"
"Easy," Tracey said with a small smile.
"Alright!" Sam cheered. "Tracey's on my team for her first field mission!" He reached across and high fived the blonde, smiling brightly at her. He turned to Trip, the smile never leaving. "We're the lucky ones. We've got hacker!"
"Hey, I'm here too," Skye called out with a laugh.
"Yeah, but we didn't get you on our team," Trip said, laughing as the brunette stuck her tongue out at him. He turned back to Tracey, smiling at her. "We'll show you the ropes and make sure you don't get into trouble."
"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who will have to make sure you don't get into trouble," Tracey shot back with a smirk.
"I definitely like her," Trip laughed, grinning at the blonde.
"Well now that that's settled," Coulson began, clapping his hands to bring the two teams' attention back to him. "Figure out when each team will make their rounds and where. Steve," he said, nodding to the super soldier and walking out of the room with him.
"What's that about?" Lance asked, eyeing the door to the stairwell that the director and super solider went through.
"Not sure," May said, staring at the doorway as well. "They seem to be talking a lot lately."
"Coulson's probably asking for autographs or something," Bobbi said with a light laugh.
"Hmm," May hummed, keeping her eyes on the stairway doors for a few more seconds before addressing the teams. "Might as well get a start on the search. Let's get going."
Sorry this chapter is short. I got stumped on what to write and what to have happened. I hope you liked it though!
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