CHAPTER 2

*Please note that all characters belong to Marvel apart from Elliot Dawes who's all rights are retained by me, the author. This is set after Age of Ultron and continues through Civil War*

I gently detached his arm from his shoulder joint. He looked so vulnerable without the arm which made me feel a little safer. Maybe I could take him on without the metal arm. It was so light and flexible. I was excited to get my hands on it. It was designed similarly to my leg. I began taking it apart and rebuilding it, making it better. I also found a small tracking chip. It had been damaged but it was still putting out a signal. I put it on the ground and stomped on it with my metal leg.

"How do you know how to fix that?" He asked, his voice hoarse.

I lifted up my leg and pulled up my trouser leg to reveal my metal leg.

"You're not the only one HYDRA's claimed limbs from," I said grimly.

He nodded, a mutual understanding passed between us. It didn't take that long to fix and recalibrate his arm. I gently attached it back. Once it was clicked into place, he flexed his fingers. They worked perfectly well. I began reimaging his arm, thinking about all the cool gadgets and whatnots I could add to it. I realised I was getting ahead of myself. He picked up his gun and got ready to leave again. I really didn't want to let him go but it wasn't right to force him to stay with me for my own selfish reasons. We both had places to run from. A branch cracked loudly outside. Both of us reacted at once. I snatched up the signal blocker, and pulled out a little device I was itching to use. He raised his gun, his eyes searching the tree line. I turned my back to him, watching the space through the window. Suddenly the quiet was erupted from bullets. I dived one way and he rolled forward. I tossed the little disc from my hand like I was through a Frisbee. It struck something and detonated, sending a shock wave through the trees. It stopped short in front of Bucky. He raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged. He raced off into the trees before I could stop him. I was very much tempted to follow him but I knew it was too risky. I grabbed my bag, pulled out another little shocker and raced in the complete opposite direction. I barrelled through a couple of agents, knocking them in all directions. I didn't stop, I kept stumbling forward.

My escape plan was going extremely well until I ran myself in a corner. I found myself surrounded by cliff face on either side. It wasn't even a cliff but it was too smooth for me to climb. I turned, about to sprint into the woods when I found myself trapped. Three men in black gear with their guns raised had blocked my exits. They began to close in on me. I raised my hand but one off them was quicker. He shot it cleanly out of my hand, completely ruining it.

"Hey! That was expensive to make!" I grumbled.

"You either come with us or die," one of them snarled.

"What if I choose neither?" I asked, going into full babble mode. "What if I choose to stand right here until starvation or natural selection decide it's my time? I mean you can't come near me but at the same time you're bother reluctant to kill me but you'd rather kill me than see me collaborate with anyone but you're side,"

I didn't even know what side that was. Judging by the aggressive threat it was HYDRA but how do I know shield hasn't taking this dark and awful time? I stood there, panicking and trying to come up with a way to escape alive and unharmed. Unfortunately best case scenario was a bullet wound. It was something I would have to risk. I'm a scientist for crying out loud, risks are what I do. Left or right? I asked myself. Fucking it completely, I went straight for the middle. I dived straight for his waist. Ruby tackling him to the ground, I managed to temporarily wind him with my oversized head. I launched myself off him, making sure I kicked off from his stomach using my metal foot. And I was off, charging through the woods. All I could think off was escaping. I can't go back to SHIELD or HYDRA. Not to confinement or to torture or whatever worse they have in stock for me. As much as I like to believe I'm too smart to be killed off, I doubt that can save myself this time. Unless I come up with something so brilliant and dangerous they have to keep me alive to force me to build it. Could I really do it? Could I really put the world at risk to save my ass? Probably. Or I could make them think I had a doomsday device. That might work? Then what? How long will it take for them to figure out I was bluffing? I don't have a great poker face. I was too busy asking myself a million questions to pay attention to where I was running. Suddenly the ground disappeared from beneath me. I let out a cry of shock as I fell down a steep slope. I rolled and tumbled until the ground and sky became a mash of colour that I couldn't tell which was which. After a moment, I crashed into a tree. It sent a shock of pain through my body, especially my side. Groaning I attempted to untangled myself. That was when I heard the soft click of the safety being turned off and a very cold, small object press into the back off my head. I froze up completely.

"Where do you think you're going girlie?" snarled a triumphant voice.

Fuck. I raised my hands from the awkward position I was lying in. my breathing was heavy from running to fast. My heart seemed to be trying to get a lifetime off heartbeats in those few seconds. I closed my eyes and waited. There was suddenly a grunt and the gun left me. I heard it clatter to the ground alongside a rather sickening crunch. I rolled over automatically, ready to attack. I was grateful to find Bucky crouching over an unconscious man. It was his right arm that was raised. I found that bizarre, I thought he would primarily use his metal arm since it's less likely to break.

"Thanks," I muttered, still struggling to catch my breath.

"Repaying the favour," he grunted. "C'mon, we've got to get moving,"

He picked up the man's gun and tossed it to me. I badly caught it and fumbled about with it in my hands until I got a proper grip. He sighed and shook his head before turning and stalking away. I followed as quickly as I could manage. I was tired. I was hungry and I was downright terrified. I wasn't sure who was chasing us and whether they were friend or foe. I wasn't entirely sure I had any allies left, especially after my last stunt. I doubt Tony will trust me ever again since I drugged his fiancé to escape. Hopefully there isn't any damage done. I just kept going. That's all I could do right now. Behind Bucky, I sounded like an elephant marching through the woods. It seemed to have caught his ears as well because after about five minutes he groaned and stopped. He whirled round, his gun still held up in his hand. I stopped at once, freezing up.

"You have got to learn how to walk quieter," he hissed. "No wonder it was so easy for me to find you,"

I nodded, not entirely sure I trusted myself to speak. He seemed very edgy and the wrong thing could flip him over. He began walking again, this time at a slower pace. I concentrated on my movements, avoiding sticks and twigs when I can and trying to step lightly. It was difficult with a metal leg. I could practically hear his eyes rolling.

"You try learning to walk silently with a metal leg," I hissed at him.

He didn't respond. Judging by the way his jaw clenched, I had touched a nerve. I stayed silent for the rest of our walk. We walked until the sun had set. Bucky refused to light a fire and insisted we slept up in the trees. He was perfectly able to climb up the tree and settle himself onto a branch. Meanwhile, I struggled to reach the first branch. I was short and not very athletic. Bucky sighed and dropped down. I gaped at the fact he dropped from quite a distance and didn't seem shaken by it, or hurt. He gave me a boost up and together we got to me a suitable height. It was pretty high up and it made me feel nauseous. I found some rope in my bag and secured myself to my branch. I offered Bucky some but he refused. Of course mister perfect assassin has mastered sleeping in a tree. It was pretty uncomfortable sitting up in a tree with rope tied tightly around me. The bark off the tree also dug painfully through my top. I found a couple of packets of beef jerky in my bag.

"Beef jerky?" I offered him, holding my hand up.

After a moment of hesitation, he took it from my hand. I heard the quiet noise off the packet opening. I opened mine and tore into it. It was my first meal since breakfast so I wolfed it down. I could hear Bucky chew his as quietly as he could. All notions of not being found had gone out of my head the moment I took that first bite. I don't even like beef jerky but its light and can fit into small spaces easily so naturally I packed a lot off it.

"Perhaps we could team up for a bit?" Bucky said quietly.

"I think that would be our wisest course of action," I agreed.

"We need to get out of America,"

"That's the best idea I've heard in a while, and I'm a genius,"

I thought I could hear him smile to himself in the darkness. As I slowly drifted off, I began to think about where we could go…