Summary: Bucky is recaptured by Hydra where their scientists conduct more experiments on him. There he meets an unlikely ally, an innocent looking young woman who is hiding a much darker side. Meanwhile Steve has tracked his best friend and discovered his location and is preparing to mount a rescue mission with the help of some of his fellow Avengers. Can they save Bucky before it's too late? And who is this mystery woman? Co – Written with Dixon – Vixen 13. Bucky/OC, Steve/Sharon, Clint/Natasha, Tony/Pepper. Rated M for graphic violence, language and eventual sexual scenes.
Soldiers And Spies
Chapter 10
The next day was spent looking over what information they had on the next base which was located in a forest in Munich, Germany.
Eva was focusing on her powers and making sure she was completely ready. She could do a lot of things but still had limits. One of them was that she couldn't read any machines, even if they were an artificial intelligence type of thing. She found that she could get inside people's heads and could manipulate them into seeing something that frightened them. Tony had said that it was fear manipulation. Yeah, that was something she had no intention of using on the team.
She made her way to the kitchen and got a bottle of chocolate milkshake and drank it as her thoughts drifted to her parents then. Her mother had shared her blonde hair colouring but she had her father's dark blue eyes. She knew that they were buried in Moscow next to their parents, and she hoped to go and visit them one day. She had been an only child as her mother had struggled to have any more children after her, but they were happy just to have Eva.
She had always wanted a younger sister, she guessed that's why she had gotten along so well with Malia. Eva had always looked after her, just like a big sister would. When she had been killed at the hands of Yelena, that psychotic bitch, Eva had been devastated. A part of her died that day too.
"Hey babe, what ya thinking about?" Bucky asked as he approached her.
"Oh hey James." She replied, after being brought out of her day dream. "Just thinking about friends and family." She told him. "I'm worried James, everyone I had ever loved has been killed. I don't want that to happen to you."
"Don't worry about me Eva, I can take care of myself. And I know that you always have my back, just like I always have yours."
"Thank you James. I love you." She smiled.
"I love you too Eva. More than anything else in this world."
Eva hugged him and he held her back tightly, as Tony came into the living room looking slightly worried.
"I think we have a really big problem with those weapons." He said seriously, causing them both to look over at him. As well as Clint who had been looking up something on his IPad with Natasha.
"The ones that we found at the base?" Natasha asked concerned. Just then Steve and Sharon came back from their lunch date, and Pepper entered the room as well.
"Yeah, I was trying to see what they were made from and didn't have any luck. All of the substances are unknown and I think some of those weapons were stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D when Steve and Natasha exposed them." Tony explained looking slightly worried.
"Did you tell Fury and Maria?" Bucky asked concerned as he held Eva's hand tightly in his human one.
"I just got off the phone with them...when HYDRA attacked one of the S.H.I.E.L.D bases in Tampa, a lot of alien weapons were stolen along with Loki's sceptre." Pepper said gravely.
"Oh crap. That's not good." Steve said in a worried tone. "That sceptre has a similar origin to the tesseract, and we all know what hell that unleashed. We need to move on this and fast."
"I agree with the captain. The longer we leave this in the hands of HYDRA the more chance they have of figuring out how it works and utilizing its power to make more weapons of mass destruction. It is far too dangerous of a weapon to be in their hands." Tony spoke up.
"Ok team, everyone gear up and get ready for the next mission. Clint, I want us flying out of here in two hours. We will take the third base, located in Munich, as soon as possible." Steve said as he addressed everyone.
"You got it." Clint replied as he and Natasha left the room to get ready and prepare the quinjet. Bucky and Eva made their way to the armoury along with Steve and Sharon. Tony said a quick goodbye to Pepper, who urged him to be careful and stay safe before giving him a quick kiss. He then went to his lab to get his suit ready.
As per the Captain's orders the team took off within two hours and headed for Germany. Everyone was very anxious, the stakes were very high. If they didn't get Loki's sceptre back, and fast, they could have another disaster like New York on their hands.
Eva felt worried, she had seen the battle of New York on TV and it had shocked her but she was not surprised that there were other alien species in the world. In a way, it sort of made her laugh at those arrogant people who stated that humans were the only species and she shook her head.
When they landed in a forest, there was no sign of anyone in the nearby and they cautiously looked around. They all took cover when they heard a vehicle approach and watched quietly as they saw a green armoured truck driving to the edge of the ravine and begin to dump bodies.
"That's three people who died of the experiments." The soldier said disdainfully.
"Yeah well, you heard what the boss said about the Avengers searching for the stolen weapons. They've got the Winter Soldier and Psyche on their side along with those two other assassins, Hawkeye and Black Widow. He needs a stronger army. At least we've got a couple of our own weapons." The man said smugly.
"Like who?" The other man asked sceptically.
"He may not have been successful lately, but I heard that he had a couple of Red Room girls experiments work out not too long ago." The soldier said.
"Two girls?" The man laughed. "You think two girls are going to be able to take on The Avengers? Especially when they have his most successful experiment, Psyche on their side."
"I can't say I have seen what they can do myself. But I've heard things. These girls are pretty powerful. I guess time will tell." he replied before they climbed into the truck and headed back to the base.
"Well, now we know what we are up against." Natasha said. "A little at least. Do you think they were talking about Yelena and Marina?" She said to Eva.
"Maybe." Eva replied. "That would explain why we haven't found either of them yet.
"Looks like we are going to be in for the fight of our lives when we do" Natasha said grimly.
"We're ready" Eva said confidently. "We can take whatever HYDRA throws at us."
"Amen to that, little Russian doll." Tony applauded, causing everyone to glare at him. "What, just trying to lighten the mood." He said as they started walking to the base and saw it was guarded like the previous one had been.
"Bucky, Eva take the right side, Clint and Natasha take the left side while me, Sharon and Tony and I will take the middle, just like last time." Steve instructed and they all nodded.
"And be careful, we have no idea what they have in there." Steve said grimly as they all split up.
Natasha and Clint looked around cautiously as they searched for the sceptre or any of the other weapons, but they found nothing. Not even a trace. The left side of the base was silent until they reached what looked like an experiment lab. Unlike the others that they had come across, this one seemed like it was designed more for weapons that people. Then they heard a laugh from behind them.
"I've been waiting for you, Natalia." A voice said.
Clint and Natasha both whipped around to see where the voice had come from, only to come face to face with Marina Blumenfeld. Her eyes glowed a sickly kind of blue, just like Clint's when he had been under the influence of Loki through the powers of his sceptre. Clint hastily pulled an arrow from his quiver and lined up his shot, but Marina shot her hand out towards him and he found he couldn't move. She had his whole body frozen.
"Awww Natalia... who's this? You're little boyfriend." She mocked. "Sorry Robin Hood, you don't get to save Maid Marian... not today." She laughed as she cast her hand aside sending Clint hurtling across the room and crashing head first into a small filing cabinet sitting on top of a desk before crumbling to the ground unconscious.
"CLINT!" Natasha yelled as she tried to rush to his side, but Marina quickly blocked her way and swung a swift sweeping kick into her stomach knocking her back.
"Uh, uh, uh Natalia. You and I have a little date... this has been a long time coming." Marina cackled like a maniac.
"It's Natasha, bitch! And you are gonna regret what you did to him!" She yelled, as she nodded towards Clint's unconscious body before she charged at her arch rival tackling her to the ground before landing punch after punch in a blind rage. Marina used some sort of powers, similar to Eva's and threw her off of her and up into the air, rolling out from beneath just in time for Natasha to come crashing down on the hard concrete floor with a thud.
"That all you got Romanova. I remember you being stronger than this. What has the outside world done to you huh? You're weak!" She yelled as she kicked her in the stomach making her roll onto her back. Natasha rolled away and quickly got back up onto her feet. Marina came at her, swinging punches left, right and centre and Natasha did her best to block them all, a few slipping through and connecting with her. Whatever HYDRA and the Red Room had done to her was definitely not good. She was strong, very strong and it was going to take all Natasha had to beat her.
She kneed Marina in the stomach making her stumble back a little, before grabbing her head and pulling her down to connect her face with her knee with a sickening crack. Marina fell to the ground and writhed around for a moment holding her bloodied face. "You broke my nose you fucking bitch!" She yelled as she got up and charged back at Natasha.
She jumped in the air a few feet out and landed a flying punch to Natasha's head just above her left eye. Instantly blood poured down Natasha's face and into her eyes making it hard for her to see.
Marina took full advantage of the situation, sweeping Natasha's legs out from under her with a swift kick. As her fist hurtled towards her face Natasha rolled away just in time and Marina's hand hit the floor with a loud thud. The Black Widow quickly stood up and regained her composure, her fists at the ready. If Marina wanted a full on fight, she was going to get one.
Bucky and Eva fought side by side as they took out the numerous HYDRA agents before clearing the area as they saw no sign of Yelena Belkova.
"She's not here." Eva said grimly and placed her gun into a holster on her left hip as they searched around for the missing nuclear weapons. "There's nothing here. This place is practically empty."
"Maybe they have her and that other woman somewhere else?" Bucky asked quietly. As they searched further the hallway they reached the end of the building and headed across to the other side. As they came around the corner they saw Natasha fighting a dark brunette haired woman, and Clint was unconscious on the ground.
"Clint?" Bucky asked quietly as they rushed to his side and he checked the man's pulse. He was alive but had a nasty bump on the head and a small cut. They looked over at Natasha who had been pinned on the floor by Marina Blumenfeld. The Red Room agent was landing punches to Natasha's head and it looked like she was in trouble. "I should help her." Eva said. But before she got the chance Natasha had turned the tables on her opponent, wrapping her legs around her neck and pulling her to the ground. She quickly scrambled to pin the other woman as she held her in a head lock while her legs wrapped around her arms locking them by her sides so that she couldn't fight back.
Marina threw her head back connecting with Natasha's as she worsened the wound to her face. Natasha let out an almighty cry of pain and rage before she twisted Marina's head beneath her arms until she heard a loud snap and the woman went limp beneath her. She quickly pushed the woman off of her and scrambled uneasily to her feet.
"Natasha, are you alright?" Eva asked concerned.
"I'm okay." Natasha panted as she wiped the blood from her face. Her eyebrow had been split open in the fight and blood was streaming down her face. She was struggling for breath and was pretty sure she had cracked or broken a few ribs in the struggle. Quickly she limped over to Clint, kneeling down beside him, and tried to wake him up.
"Clint!" She shouted as she shook his shoulders. "C'mon Clint wake up!"
He began to come to and when he realized where he was and what had happened moments before he was knocked unconscious he suddenly sat up screaming Natasha's name.
"Clint, it's okay. I'm here." Natasha told him as she grabbed hold of his arm. He searched the room looking for any signs of threat with his Hawkeye vision, coming across Marina's dead body, before quickly flicking his eyes back to his partner.
"Shit Nat are you okay? What happened?" He asked, concerned by the amount of blood on her face and her general beaten up demeanour. He cupped her face with his hands as he surveyed the nasty wound to her head. Before embracing her in a tight hug.
"I'm alright Clint, just banged up is all. I took that bitch down." She smiled, trying to make light of the situation.
"That's my girl!" Clint told her proudly. He tried to stand but he was still rather dizzy from his head wound.
"Here, let us help." Bucky said as he pulled Clint's arm around his shoulder and helped him to his feet, while Eva did the same with Natasha so she could keep the weight of her injured leg.
"Steve, we're heading your way. We have Clint and Natasha, they are both injured." Bucky spoke through his comms
"Waiting for you in the entrance way." Steve informed him as they helped their two injured friends to where the rest of their team was.
"Damn, who the hell beat you two up?" Tony asked astonished as he looked at his two friends who looked battered as Sharon tended to their injuries.
"Marina Blumenfeld, Red Room operative." Natasha stated.
"Is she…?" Steve asked, not sure if he wanted to finish the sentence.
"She's dead." Romanoff stated simply.
"Sir, it would seem we are being attacked by androids." Jarvis informed them and they froze in disbelief.
"Umm, did Jarvis just say androids?" Eva asked shocked as she heard a tearing sound as the roof of the facility was ripped open. They saw robots that were made out of a strong metal make their way in and start firing at them.
Eva threw a mental shield over the team, causing the bullets to bounce off as they raced outside away from the androids.
Tony fired small missiles from his suit, blowing up a few of their robotic attackers, but there were a lot of them, and the shape that some of them team was in they were going to have a hard time fighting them off. He continued to use his pulsors to blast the androids as Eva held up her shield, covering Steve, Sharon and Bucky as they helped Clint and Natasha to safety at the quinjet before the two men raced back to join the fight. Sharon staying behind to make sure their injured team mates were ok.
As one of them approached Bucky, he used his guns, but the bullets couldn't penetrate the androids armour. "Shit!" He cursed as it launched itself at him. It took him a while to get the upper hand, but when he did he swiftly snapped its neck twisting it right around, rendering it useless as he flopped it to the ground.
Steve used his shield to take down a couple more, taking their heads clean off with a brutal blow. "Guys, there's too many of them. I don't think we can take em all!" He yelled out to his team mates.
"Eva, if you have any more fancy tricks up your sleeve, now would be the time to bust them out." Tony said seriously.
With a nod Eva focused all her energy. Raising her arms up she sent a massive electrical blast wave through the air, frying the circuits of the androids and they all collapsed to the ground. Just to be on the safe side Steve and Tony went around them all, making sure none of them were still working, and breaking their necks to disconnect their heads so they couldn't get them up and running again.
"Great work Eva." Bucky said as he gave her a quick hug. "Let's get out of here huh." He said as he walked hand in hand with her back to the quinjet.
"Clint, are you good to fly?" Steve asked as he approached their pilot.
"Yeah, I'm okay man, the dizziness has gone away now. Your girlfriend gave me some painkillers too." He reassured the captain, making Steve blush at the mention of Sharon being his girlfriend.
"Glad you're okay. Get us in the air and out of this place, I'm gonna call Fury and let him know the SHIELD team on standby can swoop in to search the facility and destroy it." Steve said as he wandered to the back of the jet, pulling out his phone to dial the directors number.
Clint nodded in understanding and began flying the jet while Steve called Fury. An exhausted Eva collapsed onto a seat looking drained and exhausted.
Bucky helped her drink a bottle of water and she smiled at him in thanks. "Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.
"I'm alright." She reassured him. "Just tired. Using my powers took a lot out of me." She told him.
As they began flying to New York, another quinjet arrived to take in the destroyed androids. "Do you think HYDRA is building an android army to take on SHIELD and the US Government?" Eva asked quietly, she had never seen anything like those androids before and the fact that HYDRA had nuclear weapons, was worrying to say the least.
"From the way things looked, I'd say yes they were. They were all made out of a weird metal." Bucky said frowning and Tony spoke up then from where he had been taking off his helmet.
"The androids were made out of Vibranium metal, that's why the guns didn't work on them. It's the strongest metal in the world, Cap's shield, Barnes's metal arm and Eva's bones in her legs are all made out of that material. It's virtually indestructible." Tony informed.
Sharon just finished a phone call and approached the rest of the team. "Well you're right about that. A Vibranium base in Wakanda was robbed five months ago and again two weeks ago for Vibranium, they took a lot of it." Sharon said gravely.
"Isn't Black Panther the protector of the Wakanda tribe?" Eva asked curiously, she'd heard stories about a supposed man who was able to fight like a Panther and had metal claws.
"Yes, his name is Prince T'Challa." Sharon informed her and they all took that in silently. He could be an ally in the future. If things kept going the way they were they might need all the help they could get to take down HYDRA.
"Fury and Hill can deal with the Vibranium problem in Wakanda, we have bigger issues on our hands. Like how to stop and army of androids and take down the rest of HYDRA. I want rid of these bastards once and for all." Tony spoke up.
"I agree with Tony. We need to focus on one thing at a time. I'll let Fury know about this now." Steve added as he was waiting to be transferred to Fury's secure line.
When the team finally arrived back home they were all worn out and beaten up. Natasha more so than the others after her fight with Marina. They all went to their quarters to get cleaned up before dinner. Tony was planning on ordering a bunch of pizza for everyone.
Clint helped Natasha to her room with a protective arm around her back, helping to support her weight. He led her into her bathroom where he lifted her up onto the counter. He carefully removed her boots and examined her ankle, it was a little swollen and it was likely just a sprain. Before helping her with her uniform he looked at her questioningly, making sure she was okay with it and she gave him a silent nod. Carefully he lifted her off the counter and zipped down her suit, slowly peeling the skin tight clothing off her body. Leaning on Clint's shoulder, she stepped out of her uniform so that she was in just her underwear.
She felt quite vulnerable standing in front of Clint like that. Since their kiss things had been different between them. They hadn't yet talked about what it meant, but they knew they were no longer just friends and partners. It had been a rough day and she was mentally and physically drained, she longed for a hot shower and some sweat pants.
Sitting her back up on the counter, Clint wet a face cloth and began to clean the dried blood away from her face. The stitches that Sharon had applied were holding nicely and the bleeding had thankfully stopped, but she had a thumping headache. When he was finished he left her there and went to turn the shower on for her.
"You ok?" He asked as he came back to her.
"Sore, tired and I have a killer headache, but I'll live." She told him with a small smile.
"I'll go get you some pain killers while you take a shower." He said as he lifted her back off the counter again and headed for the door.
"Clint wait." She said as she grabbed a hold of his wrist causing him to turn back to her. On her face was written many different emotions. She looked relieved, vulnerable and sad all at the same time.
"What is it Tasha, do you need help?" He asked, referring to the underwear she was still wearing.
"No I just..." she trailed of as she placed a hand on his chest. "Can you..." she began as she started to unzip his uniform vest before sliding it off his shoulders and down his arms. Her fingers then went to the button of his pants, which she quickly undid. Then untucking his singlet she slid that up his body and over his head as he held his arms up willingly for her.
"Stay?" he asked, finishing her sentence for her as he stood before her in just his unbuttoned pants and boots. They had not seen each other fully naked yet, they were taking this thing slow. In any other situation Clint would jump her in a second. But after the day they had, he knew that she just needed to feel close to him. He had waited this long to be with her, waiting a little longer was easy. He was happy to just be able to provide her the comfort she needed.
"Yeah." She whispered as she ran her fingers along his muscled chest. Bending down he undid his boots and slipped them off, then he slipped his pants off too so that he stood there with her in just his boxer briefs.
Removing the remainder of their clothing he carefully helped her into the shower with him. There he helped her wash her hair and cleaned the remainder of the dry blood from around her neck and chest. When he was finished Natasha laid her head against his chest and sighed heavily.
"I'm here whenever you're ready to talk about it." He told her, knowing the events of the day were weighing on her.
"Thank you Clint." She replied as she placed a sweet kiss to his chest, just above his heart.
I hope you are all enjoying the story so far.