Chapter Three: Escape From the Triskelion
Once the elevator arrived and the doors opened, both Rebecca and the Captain stepped inside. "Operations control." The Avenger said, his tone heavy as he stepped to the back of the elevator to face the cityscape.
"Confirmed." The S.H.I.E.L.D. computer replied.
Just as the doors slid closed, a hand shot between them and Brock Rumlow, as well as two other STRIKE team members, joined them, forcing Rebecca to step back closer to the Captain to make room for them. .
"Keep STRIKE personnel on site," Rumlow was saying. "Forensics."
"Confirmed."
"Cap," Rumlow grunted in greeting. "Callahan." If Brock was surprised to see her, it was only indicated by the slight lift of his brows, otherwise, his expression remained at ease.
"Brock." "Rumlow." They both replied, with the Captain turning away from the cityscape to face the front of the elevator.
As the elevator began to descend, Rumlow turned to speak to the Captain again. "Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac team ready?"
"No," The Captain deliberated for only a handful of seconds. "Let's wait and see what it is first."
"Right." Rumlow nodded and turned back to face the front of the elevator.
The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened, allowing more S.H.I.E.L.D. workers into the glass transport making it feel more cramped inside. "Administrations level."
"Confirmed."
Rebecca shifted to make more room and caught sight of the Captain's expression. His blue eyes were narrowed in suspicion and he shifted as well, angling her slightly behind him as space became more crowded. Rebecca wasn't as quick on the uptake as he was, but she took his cues and noticed how the workers spaced themselves around the elevator, leaving herself and the Captain in the middle, surrounded.
A feeling of trepidation danced down her spine.
"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury," Rumlow spoke to the Captain again, this time from over his shoulder. "It's messed up, what happened to him."
"Thank you," Steve replied lowly just as the elevator stopped again to allow three more members of STRIKE onto the elevator.
Now Rebecca knew this was no coincidence no matter how casual the other men in the elevator were trying to appear. Alarm settled in her stomach, and her foot gave an agitated tap.
Very subtly, the Captain's fingers encircled her left wrist and he squeezed in either warning or reassurance, she wasn't sure which. But she felt sure that of the men in the elevator at that moment, he was the only one worth trusting. She had a very bad feeling about this.
"Records."
"Confirmed."
She did the math. If this was shaping up the way it looked, she and the Captain were outnumbered nine to one. The members of STRIKE stood between them and the doors and the suits, probably agents like herself, trained in combat but not with a military background were behind them.
The Captain glanced down at her, an apology in his eyes and then straightened. "Before we get started," He said to the rest of the elevator. "Does anyone want to get out?"
There was a beat of quiet, then the electric charge of a stunner baton filled the small space and the man directly in front, Agent Rollins, whipped around for the first strike, which missed as Steve dodged out of the way. The shield clattered to the floor as the largest man seized the Captain from behind trying to lock in a sleeper hold.
Rebecca yelped as two of the STRIKE team members seized both her arms dragging her to the opposite side of the elevator separating her from the Captain. Her hesitation had cost her, and she couldn't reach her sidearm. Not that it'd be safe to fire any shots in such an enclosed space but she could have used it to hit people if she'd not been so busy watching the Captain.
Electromagnetic cuffs were produced as they tried to pin Rogers to the elevator wall. He let out a grunt of exertion, eyes meeting hers before kicking the man directly in front of him in the upper thigh sending him stumbling back into one of the men trying to subdue her.
It gave Rebecca the opening she needed, twisting her left arm free, she turned her right wrist, digging her fingers into her assailant's forearm and threw her body down to the floor, forcing him down after her as she turned, sending him rolling into some of the men trying to cuff the Captain.
Rebecca scrambled up to her feet, hitting her other attacker with an uppercut that caught him under the chin. The Captain himself had become a flurry of spin kicks and fists, sending bodies flying everywhere. Then just as quickly, it was only Rebecca, the Captain and Rumlow left standing with two stun batons in his hands.
"Whoa, big guy!" Rumlow huffed, darting a glance at her before focusing on his immediate threat. "I just want you to know, Cap. This isn't personal." Then he dove forward. Rebecca winced as she heard the buzz of the baton connecting and the Captain's grunt of pain, but unlike a normal man who would have dropped from the charge. It just seemed to piss him off and he threw Rumlow up into the ceiling, glass breaking and falling down around them before Rumlow hit the floor with a thud. He didn't rise afterward either.
"It kind of feels personal." The Captain snapped, before looking over at her. "You okay?"
"Yeah." She nodded slowly, glancing at the bodies unconscious at their feet. Had she been in this elevator with anyone else, they would have been overpowered no doubt about it. "You're a badass."
"You seem capable." He stomped the outer lip of his shield causing it to flip back up into the gauntlet on his arm. "Nice arm drag."
"Thanks. Besides standard combat training, I take Muay Thai kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and am learning Russian Sambo. Still, I wouldn't have been able to do what you just did." She let out a breathless chuckle. "So what now?"
"We get out of here. Fury was right, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s compromised." He said, turning off the emergency stop that had been hit in the ruckus. "We need to get someplace safe-"
The doors slid open to reveal the rest of the STRIKE team waiting for them, guns poised to fire. "Drop the Shield and put your hands in the air!"
Rebecca lifted her hands, knowing they weren't fighting their way out of this one, way too many guns but the Captain had other ideas. Turning, he used his shield to cut through glass and the cables holding up the elevator, which began to plummet down with them still in it.
Rebecca screamed in terror, grabbing a side rail to keep from falling on top of Rumlow who still lay unconscious at her feet.
The emergency grates kicked in and the elevator came to grinding halt between floors. The Captain opened the doors just enough to see more of the STRIKE team coming and closed them again.
"Give it up, Rogers!" Someone shouted. "You've got nowhere to go."
He passed her and began looking out the window and down. He exhaled in exasperation and then looked at her. "I'm going to need you to trust me."
Rebecca glanced down and felt her eyes widen and her stomach churn with pure unadulterated fear. "No! No way! Are you crazy? We're ten stories up still!"
"I can't leave you behind. For whatever reason, they're trying to kill me, and probably you too for whatever is connected with that pirate from Algeria. I'm not going to leave you, and I can't surrender to them. So I need you to trust me." He said seriously. "Please. It's our only chance."
Rebecca listened to the shouting on the other side of the doors. He had a point. She could stay, surrender and possibly be caught up in whatever had killed Fury. No doubt they would interrogate her, probably through the nefarious means they used on criminals. Or if S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised as Fury and the Captain believed, they could simply kill her to make sure she stayed silent. Her only other choice was to put her faith in the Nation's greatest hero.
With a shaky breath, she let go of the rail. "If I die, I'm haunting your ass." She promised him, taking a shaky step over Rumlow.
He flashed a rueful smile and held out his free hand. "I won't let you die. Get on my back."
"This is such a bad idea. I've lost my mind." She swore under her breath but crossed to him. He helped boost her up so that her arms were wrapped tightly around his shoulders and her legs bracketed his hips.
"Just make sure you move with me okay?" He told her grimly. "The shield is going to take the point of impact. And I'm really sorry, there's no way this isn't going to hurt."
"I'm so going die." She muttered, squeezing her eyes shut and gripping onto him for dear life as he backed up and then broke into a sprint, using his shield to break through the glass and leap out into thin air.
She screamed again when they were airborne, shards of glass raining down with them. She felt his arms curl in as they fell towards the glass scaffolding that jutted out from the main entrance of the Triskelion. She opened her eyes, the wind whipping tears from them and her heart felt like it was in her throat, choking her. People below screamed when they crashed through it shield first and the concrete ground rushed up to meet them.
There was a hard, jarring impact that rattled every bone in her body and sent her flying clear of Captain Rogers to land several feet away from him. She heard him groan in pain but couldn't do more than wheeze in desperate gasps of air. Everything hurt, even her teeth. Everything felt broken, even parts she didn't think could break. She wasn't even sure she could move. There was a ringing in her ears and the world around her appeared fuzzy for a long moment.
"Callahan!" She heard him yell, though it was muffled to her ringing ears. The loud crunching sound as his boots crushed the glass around her came in clearer. "We've got to move." He insisted, sliding his free arm around her and forcing her upright.
Her vision spotted and she whined in protest.
"One foot in front of the other, come on, left, right." He propelled her forward and sure enough, her legs began to move of their own accord. "That's right, stay with me."
She wasn't sure how they made it to the garage. Her head was throbbing and she felt the warm, sticky wetness of blood seeping down past her right temple. And she was pretty sure she had a cracked rib, or ten. Hell, she might have cracked everything at this point, there wasn't a part of her that didn't throb with pain.
Captain Rogers grabbed his motorcycle helmet and strapped in on her head. "Hang on, okay? I'm going to get us out." He helped her onto the motorcycle then climbed on in front of her. "Whatever you do, don't let go."
He revved the engine then hit the gas and suddenly they were roaring out of the garage just as the door slammed close to lock them in. The wind whipped by her face and she ducked her aching head down into his back to avoid it.
"Stand down, Captain Rogers. I repeat, stand down." The radioed order came from the quinjet that flew out to block them off from their exit.
"We're going to make the jump." He yelled back to her, reaching down to pull one of her arms up around his shoulders. "But they're going to open fire. Keep your head down and when I lean forward, lean with me!"
"You're going to kill me!" She shouted back to him but tightened her grip on him.
Sure enough, the sound of machine gun fire and bullets embedded in the pavement. Steve accelerated and Rebecca's stomach churned with motion. She was grateful she hadn't eaten before coming in to the Triskelion or she'd be in danger of vomiting.
"Ready?" He reached for his shield. "Now!"
Suddenly the bike made a hard left, laying down on its side just as he jumped them clear. He threw his shield with his left arm, letting it take out the gun on the quinjet and used his right hand to grip hers as they flew forward through the air before landing in a heap on the other side of the bridge blockade.
For the second time, Rebecca lay stunned on the concrete as he got up to retrieve his trusty shield. She had to have a concussion at this point, despite the helmet he'd strapped on her head before their suicide jump.
Captain Rogers returned to her side, helping her up. "I am sorry, for all this. For whatever all this is. Fury dragged us into something big. If I could have left you safely behind I would have."
"Fury should be sorry. They were going to take both of us. You technically saved my life, in a suicidal kind of way." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her crushed and cracked cell phone. "Good, it's broken." She said before throwing it into the Potomac River. "Nothing else on me has GPS capability."
"Smart." He nodded and placed his hand on her lower back. "Come on, we need to get off the streets before more of them show up."
"And some ice. Preferably a lot of ice." She insisted.
A/N: I hope you're enjoying this so far. Only one person has reviewed so I have no way to tell, but some of you are following so I'll continue to write and post. I really hope Rebecca hasn't come off as a Mary-sue, that's my fear. Technically this a prequel to the real story of hers I want to write. I needed to write this to set the stage. I don't want her to be helpless, she's capable in a fight, but not on the Captain's or Black Widow's level. And she's going to have injuries. The actions scenes in this fic, she's going to feel pain, and it'll slow her down. I don't want her to appear foolish either. She trusted Captain America because he's Captain America and she considered the alternative. Her role is more of a supporting role in the Winter Soldier, she has a purpose, she's in this with them, but she's not going to detract from everyone else and save the day if that makes any sense. Eh? I'm trying! lol