---Rooftop, 4 minutes later...---
"You're sure they're in there?"
I asked Vision. It snowing and freezing. I could tell Kate was cold
because her nipples were hard(I shouldn't have been looking but it
was hard not to). Only Hawkeye, Patriot and Vision were here. Speed,
Hulkling, Wiccan, and Stature weren't able to help out on this one. I
was jealous of them, I wish I was able to say no and still be at the
X-Mansion.
"They're not even coming up on thermal scan,"
Kate added.
"I assure you it is there, Kate. They are simply
masking all heat and motion. Quite sophisticated system," Vision
assured us.
"Like we can't handle this ourselves
sophisticatd? Or, we better do this fast and bounce sophisticated?"
Patriot asked.
"There are interesting odds on either side of
that equation Patriot. But if I were forced to make an estimate I
would choose the latter," Vision answered.
"What?"
Patriot asked.
"He said we hit 'em fast and run," Kate
explained.
"Wonder how many of them there are," I
stared down at the building.
"Well considering it's
Christmas eve and terrorist don't care about holidays... a lot more
than we're hoping for," Kate answered.
"I'm calculating
a plan as we speak that will do maximum damage and easily allow our
escape. There are 3 variables I still need to-" Vision started.
My spider sense went off when he said "need to".
"Hey,
I wouldn't do that if I were you," a man came up on the rooftop
right by us. He was some form of solider, he had a mask like
Patriot's(but blue), and his left arm appeared metal(and had a star
on the shoulder).
"Make that 4 variables," Vision
corrected himself.
Patriot rolled out of the way as Hawkeye
loaded her bow with an arrow and I shot a webline at him. He dodged
the arrow and the webbing. He even caught Patriot's shield that was
thrown at him while we he was dodging. He threw it at Hawkeye. Vision
flew straight at the guy and stuck his hands through the guy and
finally caused some damage. "You hurt my friend," he
stated.
"Not as much as I'm going to hurt... you... if you
don't take your hands out of my insides," he struggled. "Can't
you tell who the enemy is anymore? Nick Fury sent me to stop you...
from stepping in his mess..."
"Fury?" Vision and I
asked simotaneously. Nick Fury was the head of SHIELD. Not too long
ago he kind of just disappeared. No one knew what happened to him.
Naturally he was replaced at SHIELD considering his ongoing absense.
Vision removed his hands, the man dropped to his knees.
"Prove
it," Patriot said.
"I didn't take your girlfriend's
head off with Cap's old shield. That should be enough proof," he
said.
"Leave him alone. I'm okay," Hawkeye walked over
to us.
"I believe he's telling the truth. But what interest
does Nick Fury have in this?" Vision asked.
"Because-"
he started. My spider sense went off when we heard a noise. "Damn
it." He grabbed one of Hawkeye's arrows and threw it at the
HYDRA solider that burst through the door and it implaed him in the
adam's apple killing him instantly.
"Omigod! You just...
you...," Hawkeye started.
"Killed a terrorist? Yeah
pretty much," he said. "But don't worry. There'll be 2 more
to take his place."
"Who is this guy?" I
muttered.
"Beats me," Hawkeye whispered back.
"You
kids aren't up for this," the unknown man started down the
stairs.
"Hey!" Patriot called after him. "You
don't know us or what we're up for or what we've been though."
"We
won't kill anyone," Hawkeye added. "But we want to help. We
know who HYDRA are."
"And more importantly we know what
they do," Vision added.
"We're a lot stronger than you
think," I added.
He was apparently talking with Fury on a
headset cuz he was muttering to himself a bit. "All right, but
we do this fast and you my all of my orders," he finally
said.
"I just said we wouldn't kill anyone," Hawkeye
said.
"Then hope I don't give you an order to. This is
HYDRA, they won't hesitate to kill any of you."
HYDRA Soliders weren't too hard to
fight. The only problem was there were so many of them. Other than
that it was fine. I just didn't like the idea of taking orders from a
guy who wouldn't even giver us a name to call him by. Seriously, who
doesn't even make up a name for people to call him. I found that
really annoying. Finally we managed to take down all of the HYDRA
soliders and we watched the base burn from a rooftop across the
street. "All right kids. Vanish, before S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up to
remindd you what a bunch of pansies HYDRA really is," the
unknown solider told us.
"Pansies? Seriously dude, what
century are you from?" Hawkeye asked. "Oh. Sorry, that is
just so insensative. Some of our best friends are-"
"I
meant wimps," he interjected. "What can I say? I'm not from
around here. Now getting moving cuz I'm not gonna bail you out
again."
later in Central Park "How
interesting. I never would have guessed," Vision said.
"What?"
I asked.
"I've just run a comparison face and combat
movement analysis through the old Avengers database in an attempt to
ascertain the identity of our new ally," Vision explained.
"Who
is he?" Hawkeye asked.
"Bucky," he
answered.
"Bucky?" Patriot, Hawkeye, and I were
baffled.
"World War II Bucky?" I asked.
Vision
nodded.
---Later in a graveyard...---
We decided we would go say a proper
goodbye to Bucky so Vision tracked him to a graveyard. When he heard
a noise he ducked behind a tombstone and pulled his gun on
us.
"Okay, now who's over-reacting?" I asked.
"You
followed me?" he asked. "No way. I'd have spotted
you."
"You couldn't spot me, I'm afraid," Vision
floated.
"Yeah, guess not," Bucky replied. "That
still doesn't explain why you're here. This is clearly a private
moment."
"Yeah, we uh... didn't realize. I mean, it's
Christmas Eve ya know? We thought you were going to your secret
hideout not-" Hawkeye tried to explain.
"I apologize
sir. It's my fault. I should have kept it to myself," Vision
apologized.
"Should've kept what to yourself?" he
asked.
"He... well that is to say, Vision has the Avengers
database in his hard drive and-" Kate started.
"We know
who you really are, Mr. Barnes," Patriot said knowing Kate may
explain too thoroughly and ramble a bit.
"No Eli, you
don't," Bucky started to walk away.
"We didn't mean to
intrude or bug you,"Kate said.
"We just wanted to say
something to you," Patriot said.
"And that is?" he
asked.
"It was an honor Bucky," we saluted him.
"Merry Christmas," Eli said before he left.
"Merry
Christmas," Kate, Vision and I said back.
Then I realized
something, "Vision, what time is it?"
"12:35 AM,"
he replied.
"Ahh... great. I told Kitty I'd be back in an
hour," I smacked my forehead, which hurt a lot considering how
cold it was.
"She'll probrably understand. I mean, how many
times do you get to meet Bucky?" Kate told me.
"Yeah I
guess so. I just feel bad that I didn't keep my promise. That's all,"
I sighed.
I walked into my room and saw that
Kitty was asleep in my bed. I felt bad that I made her wait for me. I
climbed into the bed trying not to wake Kitty.
"You said an
hour," she groaned.
"I know. I'm so sorry, something
happened and... I'll tell you in the morning," I told Kitty.
"
You jerk," Kitty told me. "I love you."
"Love
you too," I put my arm around her and went to sleep.
When I woke up I saw that Kitty was
still sleeping in my arms. She looked like an angel when she slept. I
just looked at her and held her for a while until she woke up. "Hey,"
I smiled at her.
"Hey yourself," she kissed me. I
kissed her back. We started to make out a bit.
"Know how
much I love you?" I asked Kitty.
"How much?" she
giggled.
"That I start to miss you before we're apart,"
I kissed her.
"What would I do without you?" Kitty
kissed me back. "You miss me yet cuz I gotta go to the
bathroom."
"Yeah... well I'm kinda hungry. I'll meet
you in the kitchen," I kissed Kitty one last time before we both
got out of bed and left the room, she turned right and I turned left.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs I passed Laura. "Merry
Christmas," I greeted her. Okay I know what you're thinking but
I only agreed to not treat this as Christmas with Kitty. There wasn't
anything wrong with saying it to other people.
"Merry
Christmas," she said back. A few seconds later she said,
"Jason?"
"Yeah?" I asked turning back to
her.
"I don't understand why Christmas is celebrated,"
she said.
"Oh, I could help with that. Well about 2000 years
ago-" I started.
"I understand the religious aspect but
I don't understand why it's celebrated this way: giving people gifts
and all that type of stuff," Laura specified. That was one thing
about Laura. She knew a lot when it came to tactical type things but
other things she didn't know so well. From what I know she's been
with the X-Men about 9-10 months now. Before she sort of drifted
around. This must've been her first Christmas here.
"Okay...
umm..." I searched for a way to explain it. Then a lightbulb
clicked in my head, "Oh! Well you see, since Christmas is the
birthday of Jesus we pay respect to him by giving each other gifts
which in a way is like giving him a gift because the best gift we
could get him is happiness for others because he was such a
self-sacrificing person."
"I see. Where does Santa come
in?" Laura asked.
"Um... I honestly don't know. I know
he's got almost nothing if anything to do with the religious side of
Christmas," I said.
"Thanks," Laura told me before
she left.
---7PM...---
Kitty and I walked through the
courtyard arm in arm as it snowed. It felt like a dream, nothing was
going wrong and I was with Kitty. This whole day was great. I really
deserved it after everything I've went through over the recent years:
Mom and Dad dying, finding out I was a mutant, discovering Nathan was
alright, not mentioning saving countless lives on a daily basis.
Christmas almost seemed to make time stop for Kitty and I. "
love you, more than anything else in this world Kitty," I told
her.
"I love you too," she smiled back. Suddenly we saw
a shooting star. "Make a wish."
"I wish that time
could stop around us so we could be like this forever," I told
Kitty before I kissed her softly on the lips.
