Warning: slight gore, death, and blood
Chapter 22
Tony keeps his gaze on locked Bucky, unable to believe that this is actually happening right now. Of all the people they could be facing against, it had to be Winter Soldier. If anything, he can at least be glad that Steve isn't here. Knowing the blond, he would make it his life's mission to get Bucky back now and in turn change the future (and possibly the course of history). Tony sighs, pulling himself from his thoughts. He can hear footsteps and shocked exclamations from behind him, signaling the others arrival to the main deck.
"Who the hell is that?" Peggy asks, confused.
"They call him The Winter Soldier," Natasha says, sounding shocked.
"Winter Soldier?" Howard's voice asks.
"A Soviet assassin injected with a similar serum to Captain America," the redhead explains.
"How do you know that—that's classified information?" Peggy demands.
"I read," Natasha says simply.
"What do we do?" Clint asks.
"We fight," Tony says. Back in England, Nat said that he made a good backup Cap; here's to hoping he's going to be making the right call. "Clint, find a perch. Peggy and Nat, take out the soldiers in whatever way you see fit. Howard, get to cover."
"Why am I the only one?" Howard complains.
"Because I don't want to have to worry about keeping track of you during the battle," Peggy adds in a firm tone. "Now go."
Howard looks like he wants to keep arguing, but ultimately sighs and goes to find cover.
Tony turns and opens his mouth to talk to Rhodey, but closes it when he hears the sound of their armor arriving. He smirks as the metal slowly encases his body piece by piece until he's completely covered in his tech. The suit comes online with various pop up screens showing him everyone's positions and status. "JARVIS, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, sir."
"Avengers? Call in."
"I'm here," Natasha says immediately.
"Same," Clint says. "I'm on top of the ship."
"We're good," Rhodey says.
"Excellent," Tony says. "The four of us are the only ones who have comms and no one else should be able to hear our conversations over the noise of the battle."
"Armor?" Howard exclaims, sounding like he just found a gold mine. "You made yourselves armor! That is incredible! How long did it take? What did you use? Is it painful to be in there for long periods? Will . . .?"
"See, people like my suit too," Rhodey says over Howard's excited chatter, with a swell of pride in his voice.
"All that proves is that Howard truly has terrible taste in, well, everything," Tony says. He can almost hear Rhodey's frown from behind his faceplate. "Come on, sweet tart, don't give me that look. We can argue over who has superior armor, when the answer is clearly me, later. Let's focus on making sure no one kills us or Bucky for that matter."
Rhodey mumbles under his breath. "Fine."
The armored men take flight, launching themselves from the ship and into the air, their exterior microphones picking up shocked exclamations from the Agents and a sarcastic one from Clint.
Tony rolls his eyes; he flies back to the ground, barreling into a group of soldiers and knocking them out. Natasha charges forward, using her widow's bite to take down three consecutive men while rounding on more. Peggy pulls out her pistols, firing on anyone who approaches her, and ducking behind cover when she needs to reload. Clint rains down a storm of arrows, keeping the soldiers off their six. Howard is behind cover with two Shield Agents, offering occasional backup and moral support.
"So do we actually have a solid plan or are we just going to wing it?" the archer asks.
"The first thing we need to do is take out these foot soldiers, there's too many of them!" Rhodey says as he takes down two more men.
Tony scans the area, watching the Soviets boarding the yacht from the several ships surrounding them. He grins when an idea hits him. "Rhodey, we need to blow up the boats. "
"Alright, now that's what I'm taking about!" Rhodey calls, immediately firing off his replusors and taking out some of the Soviet boats loitering on the left side of the yacht. He overestimates the blast of his weapons and accidentally hits the deck of the yacht.
"Hey! Don't destroy my yacht!" Howard yells. "This shit costs more money that you can dream about!"
Tony rolls his eyes. "Doubt it." He fires a gauntlet blast that takes out one of the boats on the right side of the yacht in addition to part of the railing. He sighs, opting to ignore Howard's threats of suing him, in favor of flying around the ship and knocking down the soldiers trying to climb to Clint's position.
"Man, Shield doesn't fuck around," Rhodey says, sounding like he's grimacing.
He's right. The fight has barely begun and there are already a shit ton of Soviet corpses littering the main deck of the ship. So much blood has been spilled, that it's dripping down the side of the yacht and into the sea below.
Iron Man shakes his head and looks away from the yacht's exterior, spotting a few Soviet soldiers approaching Howard's position from behind. The other man isn't aware of the danger behind him, instead keeping his focus on the battle and the Agents on either side.
Tony quickly flies to Howard and lands behind him, intercepting the soldiers, who give him confused looks. He nods. "Fellas."
The soldiers raise their guns and fire at him, the bullets bouncing off his armor. He takes a step forward, watching with an amused grin as the enemies take a step back. The brunet raises his right arm and fires a repulsor blast, knocking the men backwards and causing them to fly over the railing and into the water below.
Tony turns to the three behind him and gauges their reactions, his gaze lingering on Howard. His father's expression is one of complete amazement and wonder at the armor. He can't help the swell of pride that bursts inside of him at Howard's approval of something he created (a first for the other man).
"Tones! I could use some help over here!" Rhodey says in a slight panic. He flies higher into the air in an attempt to shake off the soldiers clinging to his armor.
"On my way." Tony fires up his jet boots and heads to Rhodey's position, helping his friend physically pull the soldiers off him and dropping them into the freezing water below.
"Thank you," Rhodey says in a singsong tone. He gives Tony a mock salute before flying away.
Tony shakes his head, amused. He turns and rescans the deck to determine everyone's positions. Clint is still in his perch, firing arrows to the deck below. Rhodey is flying around the ship and having way too much fun knocking people into the water. Howard, Natasha, and Peggy are still on the ground, fighting to the best of their abilities. The brunet glances over the area again before sighing. He lost sight of Bucky in the crowd a while ago and he's hoping the other man isn't up to something they're going to regret later on.
"Uh, not to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm out of arrows," Clint says in a sheepish tone.
"Dammit Clint," Natasha says, voice sounding strained.
"Are you able to get to the lower deck to collect them?" Rhodey asks.
"That's a negative," Clint says. "They finally realized I'm up here. I'm gonna need a ride."
"Hang on, Katniss," Tony says. He turns around mid-air and heads to Clint's perch, watching as the soldiers engage his teammate. The brunet flies low to the ground, knocking soldiers out of the way and clearing himself a path to Clint. When he reaches the archer, he grabs the other man around the waist and propels them away from the area. He circles the ship once before depositing Clint near Natasha's position.
"My hero," Clint deadpans.
Tony rolls his eyes, deciding not to respond to Clint's comment, before returning to the battle.
As the day begins to turn into night, the Avengers and Shield are finally beginning to gain the advantage over the thinning enemy soldiers. Not long ago, Bucky reappeared and started getting more involved in the battle, not sparing a glance to his comrades being killed around him. Watching Winter Soldier in combat like this really shows Tony that they tried to make him the true opposite of Cap. While Steve is strong stances and power with the shield, Bucky is graceful and fast, using his agility and weight to his complete advantage.
Tony takes down three more soldiers and opens his mouth to ask the Avengers about their next move, when the sound of Winter Soldier barking out orders in Russian causes him to hold his tongue.
"Guys, he just said that the battle is dragging on too long and that they need to finish this quickly or the boss will get mad," Natasha translates. "We have to hurry; we have no idea what Winter Soldier might do if he's desperate enough."
The genius thinks for a minute while he takes out the soldiers that are overwhelming the Agents on the ground. He grabs one of the men, who tries to attack Peggy from behind, and tosses the enemy into the water. It takes a few more moments before an idea hits him.
"JARVIS, is there a way to disable Bucky's arm?"
"I would assume so, but we would have to be within the minimum of five feet in order to properly analyze him."
Tony observes Winter Soldier fighting against two Shield Agents and smirks. "I can do you one better."
He flies over to Bucky, who is running down the length of the ship and heading towards Howard's position. Tony hovers over Bucky's head, grabbing the man by his forearms mid-sprint before lifting him into the air.
"JARVIS, begin the analysis," Tony says.
"Initiating scan."
Winter Soldier struggles as they fly higher into the sky, kicking his legs and twisting his body in an attempt to free himself. Tony hangs on as best he can, but he doesn't know how long he'll able to keep this up.
After a few tense minutes of circling the ship, Winter Soldier manages to free his right arm and reaches into one of the pouches at his waist. He pulls out a small device, about the size of a person's fist. Before Tony grab him again, Bucky reaches his hand up, and attaches the device to his chest plate.
Immediately, the object sends an electric shock through Tony and he almost drops Bucky out of surprise. The armor's power starts going in and out, with JARVIS in the background saying the system is failing. He can hear the jet boots shutting off and feel them start to fall out of the sky. Bucky struggles harder as they descend closer to the ship, wriggling his body against Tony's slacked grip.
"JARVIS, disengage the armor immediately, and transfer any power left to the gauntlet on my right arm." He'll be damned if he's going to be trapped in his armor again like some sort of humanoid paperweight.
As soon as Tony finishes speaking, the suit starts detaching itself from his body. Bucky frees himself from the brunet's grip, curling into a ball and rolling away on the deck. The armor falls into useless pieces around the two of them, with Tony crashing into the deck of the ship, using his gauntlet to absorb as much of the fall as possible.
"Tony! Are you alright?" Peggy calls from the other side of the ship.
"I'm good. Nothing seems broken," Tony says, still trying to wrap his mind around what just happened. He's never seen technology like this that can force him out of his armor. In the back of his mind, he always knew it existed, but he never would have expected that 1950s Soviets of all people would be in possession of it. He knew they were highly advanced in their development of new tech, but he had no idea they were this far down the line.
One thing that puzzles him though: if Bucky had this sort of device to disable his armor, why didn't he use it when they first saw him in Zima? Maybe he had it on him, but didn't think to use it because the brainwashing was slipping and Tony was nowhere near him. Or the device could only be used once and they were trying to replicate it, but if that were the case they would have massed produced more for sure. Whatever the reason, he knows the device wasn't originally created to deal with him, so who could it have been created for?
Tony shakes his head, clearing his mind of all thoughts. He can think about theories and possible motives later. Right now, he has a job to do. The brunet uncurls himself and slowly starts to stand when Bucky reaches him.
Winter Soldier kicks Tony to the ground and flips him onto his back before climbing on top of him and pinning him to the deck with his knees. He reaches into one of the pouches at his waist and pulls out a knife.
Horrified, Tony tries wiggling from underneath Winter Soldier to no avail. Bucky is way too strong and there's nothing Tony can do except watch the man raises the knife into the air and—
Hesitate.
Tony watches Bucky tense his muscles, imagining his eyes scanning the billionaire's face behind his goggles as if he's confused at what he's doing. The pause in all action makes Tony think back to what Bucky said on the roof. He tried fighting against his captors on multiple occasions, somehow knowing in the back of his mind that what he did on his missions was wrong despite having his mind continuously wiped.
The billionaire opens his mouth to speak when the knife is knocked from Bucky's hand. and Winter Soldier's head immediately whips to the right, not caring about the weapon that lands a few feet away. Out of the corner of his eye, Tony sees Natasha standing in the distance, posture firm with a smirk on her lips.
Winter Soldier raises himself into a standing position and walks a few feet away, abandoning Tony in favor of staring down the Widow. Her smirk increases as Tony realizes her unspoken challenge has been accepted.
"What are you doing?" Tony asks confused.
"I know how he fights, trust me on this!"
"Nat—"
"Trust me!"
Natasha rocks back on her heels before charging towards the Soldier. Bucky pulls out a pistol from one of his thigh holsters and fires at Nat. Tony watches with baited breath as she effortlessly dodges each one of his bullets before swooping in close and kicking the gun from his grip.
Winter Soldier quickly recovers, grabbing a knife from his pocket and throwing himself into the fight. Natasha dodges and blocks each of his attacks while searching for some sort of opening. After a few moments, she somehow manages to get behind Bucky and jumps, landing in a sitting position on his left shoulder. She wraps her thighs tightly around his neck and squeezes, trying to get him to pass out.
Bucky was taken off guard for a few seconds before grabbing Natasha by her utility belt and throwing her off him. She flips in mid-air and lands on her feet some distance away before grabbing her own gun and firing. Bucky raises his metal arm to protect his face, using the second Natasha pauses to reload to charge at her.
Tony tears his gaze away from the pair when he hears bullets whizzing past his head. "Shit!" He scrambles to his feet before running out of the line of fire, passing dozens of corpses in various states and nearly slipping the amount of blood covering the deck.
The brunet ducks behind a fallen crate gathering himself before poking his head up and firing his gauntlet. The blast strikes the enemies cover, knocking one of the soldiers backwards and causing him to be impaled through the stomach on a broken piece of railing.
He ducks back behind the crate, trying to control his breathing. He can do this, it's not like he hasn't seen destruction like this before. However, in his defense, there is a difference between seeing death through a screen from hundreds of feet in the air and seeing death three feet from you. Tony briefly wonders how Steve and Bucky were able to do this; being on the front lines, watching their friends and fellow soldiers getting shot and blown to bits, not knowing if they were going to live to see another minute.
He pokes his head up again and spots Howard out of the corner of his eye, firing his weapon from behind his cover before ducking back down. It doesn't take long for Tony to decide to join him. As much as he doesn't want to be around his father, they'll have a better advantage together. If he's being completely honest with himself, he doesn't want to be alone right now, and he'll take any sort of company he can get even if it is in the form of Howard Stark.
Tony takes a deep breath before sprinting from his cover, carefully evading the bullets and soldiers surrounding him. He pauses only to grab a pistol from the ground and resists the urge to vomit at the disfigurement of the corpse of the Shield Agent next to it.
The brunet tears his eyes away from the body and he continues running until he reaches Howard's cover. He slides in next to the other man, barely sparing a glance at the two dead Agents lying in crumpled heaps behind them.
Howard nods to Tony in greeting before popping his head up, and firing three rounds before ducking back down and reloading his gun. "Is this your first battle?" he asks, eyes scanning Tony's face with concern. It's weird to see his father with this expression because it's never been directed at him.
"Surprisingly no," Tony answers honestly, keeping his eyes locked on the railing behind Howard's shoulder. "You'd think I be used to . . . everything by now."
His father gives him a confused look before it turns into one of suspicion. "Who are you people really?"
"It's like we told you," Tony says, meeting Howard's gaze. "We're archaeologists."
A/N: In regards to the device, the Soviets created it because of a rumor they heard that Stark Industries was building robots to use against them. Winter Soldier was sent in to deal with Howard.
Overall, I think this chapter is kind of eh. I still can't write battle scenes very well and I had to write this twice. I'm still not too happy with it, but I did my best and I really hope you guys enjoyed, none the less. Please let me know what you thought!
We're nearing the end!