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 20
As Clint flew the team back to his farm, Steve was on the phone to Fury, filling him in on what happened.
"Yes sir, Rumlow is in SHIELD custody." He told the director. "I'm sorry sir, in the panic to clear the civilians while Eva was trying to contain the bomb blast... I'm afraid Ross got away."
The team looked at him grimly.
"Yes sir." They heard Steve say. "No sir, no leads yet... Ok sir, have Hill call me when you find him." Steve said before he hung up the phone.
"Eva, how are you feeling?" Steve asked her. Sharon had been checking her over, while Bucky filled her in on what had happened. Her powers had drained her energy so much trying to contain the bomb that her short term memory had been obliterated. She couldn't remember anything that happened during the mission. Sharon said it was most likely only temporary, but they would use some of Tony's technology to do a brain scan once they got back, just to be sure. She administered another shot of Eva's serum to boost her energy levels back up. She was as pale as a ghost and very weak and tired, but otherwise she was unharmed.
"Ok... someone's gotta address the elephant in the room." Tony spoke up and everyone looked at him confused.
"What are you talking about Stark?" Steve asked.
"Eva..." He said, and everyone seemed even more confused. What could she possibly have done wrong? Bucky's fists balled up then as he looked at Tony angrily. "You saved us all." Tony said seriously. "We owe you our lives. Bucky had mentioned back there that sometimes you felt like you weren't worthy to be an Avenger. Let me be the one to tell you right now that you... you are most certainly worthy. You put the safety of your friends and countless civilians ahead of your own. You are a true hero Eva." Tony said with a smile.
"Thank you Tony." Eva smiled shyly.
"Just one thing..." Tony added. "Don't ever think that you have to do anything like that on your own. We are a team. We fight as a team, and if it comes down to it... we will die as a team" Tony said as he looked around at everyone and they all nodded in agreement.
"You gave us one hell of a scare Eva." Natasha said as she hugged her cousin tightly. "Don't ever do that again." She scolded jokingly, but still kind of serious about it.
"I'll try not to." Eva laughed.
"I'm so proud of you Eva." Bucky said as he held her hand tight.
"I think this calls for a celebration tonight!" Tony said somewhat triumphantly. "We took down Belkova and captured Rumlow, this is good progress."
"Tony's right." Steve agreed. "This is a win for us, and we haven't really had a lot of those lately. I think we all deserve to blow off a little steam." He smiled.
"Party time, people." Natasha said approvingly and everyone cheered then brightly as they landed at the farm and started getting off the quinjet then.
Bucky helped Eva get off the plane then, she leaned into him weakly as they headed up to the ranch and staggered into the living room. Natasha helped Eva up to the desk where Tony and Jarvis could do a brain scan of her brain, she was starting to remember things but still had a very bad headache.
Clint poured glasses of water for everyone along with passing around some first aid kits, the fight had been brutal and they all needed to patch themselves up and relax. A night off was just what they all needed. They had captured Rumlow but Eva had nearly died in the process.
The brain scans confirmed that Eva was fine and simply needed some rest, so Eva stuck strictly to water, but couldn't resist a glass of sake which was Japanese Rice Wine when Tony had brought out a bottle.
"I'm wondering if any of you have a sexual fantasies?" Tony asked slyly and a little drunk, causing everyone to stare at him then in shock. Sam began whistling low trying not to hear about his friends sex lives. That was not a conversation he wanted to be a part of.
"Well now that you ask that, Tony...I like my man being alpha male and being in charge." Sharon said teasingly and winked at Steve who smirked and held her close while his cheeks flushed red.
Tony looked dumbfounded. "And here we were thinking you were all innocent Cap." he laughed, causing Steve to turn an even brighter shade of red.
"Tony's wonderful in bed, especially with the Arc Reactor." Pepper said a little too openly, the few glasses of wine clearly had an effect on her. Tony just smiled cockily, he was never one to shy away from praise. Especially when it came to his sexual prowess. Everyone looked at Eva then who had just sat down next to Bucky. She was out of her suit, and now wearing a pair of black jeans, a grey t - shirt and her hair was damp from having a shower.
"I have no complaints in that department, especially with his metal arm." Eva said playfully and kissed Bucky on the cheek then as everyone just stared.
"What about you Barton… Romanoff, you guys getting in on this?" Tony asked with a chuckle.
"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell." Clint replied with a smile as he placed a sweet kiss on Natasha's cheek.
"C'mon Romanoff… I know you got something to say… those three glasses of wine and two shots of sake gotta be kicking in by now." Tony laughed.
"What can I say…? Clint never misses his target." She giggled somewhat suggestively causing everyone else to laugh along
"I did not need to hear about everyone's sex lives." Sam said horrified as he turned on the news to change the topic of conversation, apparently there was some sort of law for superheroes called the Superhero Registration Act by Thaddeus Ross.
"Ugh that Ross is a total asshole." Natasha groaned.
"I agree babe." Clint said, and the rest of the team nodded in agreement too.
"Hopefully it won't be too long before Fury and Hill can track his whereabouts and we can take that bastard down." Steve growled angrily. It wasn't like him to show such anger and definitely not like him to curse.
"Language!" Tony scolded jokingly and the whole team laughed, including Steve.
"Sorry Tony, it just slipped out." Steve chuckled.
"This Superhero Registration Act is a complete joke." Eva piped up. "It's just an excuse to put us all in cages. We all know that is Ross's end game."
"We won't ever let that happen. Once we catch up with Ross the world will see him for what he truly is. HYDRA scum!" Bucky growled.
"I'm sick of seeing this guy's face." Tony said referring to the photo of Ross that the reporter had put up on the screen, before switching the tv off again and instructing Jarvis to put some music on.
"I can't even look at him without wanting to punch his face in." Bucky agreed, making Tony laugh.
Anyone for another drink!?" Tony declared as he made his way to the bar.
"Count me in!" Natasha called out along with most of their other team mates.
Now that Eva was feeling better she decided to have a glass of wine along with Sharon, Pepper, and Natasha. The guys had shots of bourbon and whisky as they told stories and laughed the night away, the music playing quietly in the background and all thoughts of HYDRA slipped from their minds.
After a while everyone was feeling pretty tipsy and they all decided to call it a night and each staggered off to their rooms.
Bucky glanced at Eva who had completely crashed out and was quickly falling asleep, a happy smile on her face as he pulled her into his arms, his metal hand stroking her cheek gently.
"I love you, Eva." He whispered softly and Eva smiled in her sleep then, she held onto him tightly then.
"I love you too." She whispered sleepily and he held her close, happy at having Eva by his side, he loved this strong, brave and fearless woman.
She meant everything to him. She made him so happy, he held her tightly to him and closed his eyes as he tried to get some sleep and avoid getting a hangover.
The next day was spent trying to figure out what Ross's next move would be, they had stopped him letting off one of the nuclear bombs in China but he had four more left.
Where would he send them?
Fury had that answer for them when he arrived, apparently Ross was in Russia. Moscow to be exact, in the country side and he had a lot of men with him, including enhanced and those Vibranium made androids that HYDRA had created.
"Oh no..." Natasha said grimly and the team turned to look at her, confusion on their faces. "The Military and Defence Expo." She stated.
"What's that?" Sharon asked curiously.
"I always watch the Russian news, and just the other day I saw Putin talking about The Military and Defence Expo. The science and technology division of the Russian military have been creating new guns and tactical armour that will make a huge difference. So they are holding the expo to showcase it all as well as recruiting more soldiers" Natasha explained.
"Oh god." Steve exclaimed.
"Ross is going to bomb the expo?" Eva asked worried.
"Most likely." Steve answered. "He wants to take out as much of the opposing foreign military as possible, so he will take any opportunity to attack when they are in mass groups."
"Cap's right." Fury spoke up. "Our intel suggests that Ross intends to detonate a nuke at the expo. The loss of life would be huge. We need you all to make sure that doesn't happen. Get to Moscow and find Ross. Capture him and bring him in, if you can't do that... then kill him." Fury told the team.
"Yes Sir." Steve said. "Team... suit up, wheels up in one hour."
Everyone nodded and went to suit up, not to mention grabbing their weapons while Steve and Fury agreed that the president needed to be notified and that an evacuation of the public needed to be done immediately.
No one wanted innocent people in the crossfire, not if they could help though as HYDRA didn't mind killing innocent people just to kill their enemies.
Everyone boarded the quinjet and Clint started flying them to Russia. Natasha and Eva both looked nervous about going back to their native country. Eva couldn't remember the last time she had been to Russia, maybe it had been after her first assassination on someone when she had graduated the Red Room.
"Here, got you this." Bucky said quietly and handed her a collapsible bo staff then as she stared at him a little confused. But she didn't miss the smug looks Clint and Natasha gave her.
"Am I missing something or is there a running joke?" Eva asked finally, hoping no one in the jet knew about her secret wish to have a collapsible bo staff.
"Nope, just figured that you'd want your own collapsible bo staff seeing as you like stealing Clint's to practice with when he taught you how to use it." Tony said smugly.
Eva turned an interesting shade of dark red then.
"Damn you, JARVIS." She said finally but she wasn't cross with the AI.
"I'm sorry Miss Nikolayev, Mr Stark and Mr Barnes along with Mr Barton and Miss Romanoff tricked me into showing the training room footage of you using the collapsible bo staff. If I must say so, you show skill with it." JARVIS praised.
Eva flushed. "Thank you, JARVIS." She said shyly and wished that she was facing a horde of HYDRA robots instead of her amused boyfriend and the rest of the team.
'I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?' She asked Bucky mentally who smiled and held her close, before kissing her.
'No, but I think it's sexy, doll.'
When the Quinjet landed in Moscow the team were all geared up and ready to go. Hill had just sent them intel on a reported sighting of Ross near the venue of the expo and they wasted no time in getting there as quick as possible. No doubt Ross and the HYDRA soldiers were setting up the nuke.
Together half of the team made their way through the basement of the building where the expo was being held while Tony, Pepper, Rhodey and Sam took out a few HYDRA guards posted at the entrances before securing them and clearing any civilians from the surrounding buildings and streets.
The group in the basement split off into teams, Steve, Sharon and Natasha took one side while Eva, Bucky and Clint took the other. Quickly and quietly they took out any HYDRA soldiers they came across. Careful not to alert Ross to their presence. Eva was enjoying breaking in her new Bo Staff. They continued to make their way through the basement floor to find that it was clear and the two teams re-joined at the exit to the floor above.
"No sign of Ross in the basement." Steve told the others through his comms. "Heading to the first floor."
"Copy that Cap." Tony replied. "Streets and surrounding buildings are clear of civilians. Pepper and I are heading to the roof to make our way down."
Steve and the others quietly climbed the stair case, as they reached the door Bucky checked it to make sure it wasn't rigged with alarms or explosives. "All clear." He whispered as he opened the door a crack. Peering out into the hall he could see half a dozen HYDRA operatives standing guard outside on of the doors. Bucky signalled the others with his hands, telling them how many soldiers he could see. Each of them were assigned a target and on Bucky's count they burst through the door. Clint took out his target with an arrow, while Sharon used her pistol with a silencer to take out hers. Natasha threw one of her widow's bites at her target, rendering him unconscious and Steve threw his shield at another, knocking him out. Bucky ran at another, grabbing him quickly as he reached for his radio. Covering his mouth he broke the soldier's wrist making him drop the radio and stifled his scream of pain before knocking him out. Eva used her new bo staff to swiftly knock out the last remaining soldier before the team converged at the door.
Natasha used a device that Tony had made to scan the room for heat signatures. She counted a dozen, and she was certain one of those would be Ross. She switched the device to another mode which allowed her to listen. Through a small speaker came Ross's voice. He was instructing a couple of the men on where to place the bomb for maximum effect.
"We've located Ross." Steve told the others.
"What's our play here Cap?" Clint asked as he looked to their leader.
"No matter what, we need to stop Ross from detonating that nuke, Bucky and Eva you need to make sure that no Enhanced get in our way and if you have to then kill." Steve instructed and then looked at his team then, his family. "Either way, watch each other's backs, you get hurt, hurt them back...you get killed...walk it off."
They had managed to fight off half of Ross's men but he seemed to have made an army of enhanced HYDRA and Red Room agents that were willing to stop them at all costs.
Eva took one out with her collapsible bo staff while Bucky took the other one out by snapping his neck, she then saw a dark haired young woman glaring at her then.
"I don't think we've met yet, I'm Eva!" Eva said politely with a somewhat sarcastic and smug look on her face and the woman's eyes flashed dark orange then briefly before she glared at them.
"I don't care!" She spat and charged at them, Eva blocked her attack with her bo staff, pushing her backwards before using her powers to throw her into the other woman who was fighting Bucky then.
"Thanks, doll." Bucky said quietly and she smiled then, amusedly at him then as they went to join the others.
"Your welcome, James."
They quickly cleared their area but found no sign of Ross or the nuclear bomb, when they found the rest of their team fighting off Ross's army of enhanced and the Vibranium made robots.
Eva began levitating some in the air, before using her psionic energy blasts to cause them to rot and rust, purple energy glowing around them as they were broken into pieces. Bucky used his gun while Natasha used her batons, Sharon used her staves, Clint used his bow as Tony, Pepper and Rhodey used their repulsors to blast at them.
"Did you really think that you'd win?" Ross asked coldly as he walked into the room, holding a vial of dark red liquid, and without any of them speaking he quickly drank it and tossed the vial aside. Nothing happened for a minute and the team all looked at one another confused, suddenly he became bigger and his skin turned a dark shade of red then as he let out a loud roar. He had become like the Hulk.
"What the fuck is that!?" Clint shouted alarmed at what Ross had just transformed himself into.
"He's like the Hulk but red." Steve answered worriedly.
"Correction, I'm better than the Hulk. We created a serum to replicate what happened to Doctor Banner, but with all this HYDRA technology and the use of their scientists I finally got what I wanted. To be indestructible!" Ross boomed.
"Ummm any ideas?" Natasha questioned as she looked around at her team mates.
Tony, Pepper and Rhodey began firing their repulsors at him, but the energy blasts didn't even penetrate the monster's skin. "Enough!" he yelled as he swung a giant red arm at Tony and the others, sending them flying into the wall.
"You guys good?" Steve asked worried.
"Yeah... we're okay" Pepper replied as she scrambled to her feet.
"I told you... you cannot win!" The red hulk growled.
"We'll see about that." Clint replied as he fired an explosive arrow at him which he caught mid-air, allowing it to explode within his grasp and as the smoke cleared around his hand it revealed it to be unharmed. "This is going to be fun." Clint said sarcastically. Ross roared and swung his huge fist at him, only to be stopped in his tracks when dark purple energy wrapped around Clint and moved him out of the way. Clint looked around and found Eva levitating him in the air, her eyes had a dark purple like lavender tint to them and she was concentrating hard before gently putting him down beside Natasha as Ross stomped towards where Eva and Bucky were.
"I've located a nuke!" Sam spoke through comms.
"On our way." Tony replied.
"You have been thorns in my side ever since you joined the Avengers!" The Red Hulk roared enraged before making a move to swipe at them then.
Eva then started throwing psionic hex bolts at him to give Tony time to deactivate the nuke when suddenly one of the Enhanced let out a loud scream, that made Eva's head hurt. Eva clutched her head in pain, and Clint saw the Ehanced and fired an arrow at her. She caught it and smirked.
"Is that really the best you could do? I honestly thought you were better than this as you defeated Natalia when you were sent to kill her, Agent Barton-" the rest of her sentence was cut off when she was blown up.
"You were saying?" Clint asked sarcastically.
"Thank you, Clint!" Eva and Bucky called out as they tried to take down the Red Hulk but he responded trying to crush them, Bucky shot him in the arm but it only grazed him and he snarled.
"The nuke has been deactivated." Tony told the team as he and Pepper reappeared.
Bucky grabbed Eva's hand and they raced over to where the others were as they suddenly saw a helicopter firing at them.
"Tony... you got this?" Steve asked as he gestured to the helicopter outside the window.
"Sure thing Cap... Pep, with me babe." He said as he flew out of the shattered window towards the helicopter along with Rhodey. The two men each fired off a shot but the pilot swerved to the side narrowly missing them. That's when Pepper fired off a shot of her own, a small missile from the forearm of her suit. It connected with the tail rotor and the chopper began to spiral out of control before descending to the ground.
"Great work Pepper." Tony said as they both flew down towards the wreckage to check for survivors.
The rest of the team continued to fight the massive creature that was once Ross. Natasha threw a few widows bites at his legs but they felt like nothing but a mere pin prick to the huge beast. The Red Hulk picked Natasha up and tossed her aside and she crumpled to the floor in a heap.
"Natasha!" Eva yelled, worried about her cousin.
"I'm ok." She growled as she began to climb to her feet.
"You big ugly red bastard." Clint growled, angry that he had hurt the woman he loved. He charged at the red Hulk, leaping in the air he plunged his knife deep into his chest and used his weight to drag the blade downwards. He roared in pain as the wound began to bleed, but it was only enough to slow him down just a little. He grabbed onto Clint and roared in anger as he threw him across the room, dangerously close to the shattered window, luckily he stopped just short but when he let out a huge cry of pain Natasha knew that something was wrong.
"Clint!" She screamed as she ran to his side. As she knelt beside him she could see he had landed on a large shard of glass from the edge of the window and it had gone right through his left shoulder.
"I need some help here!" Natasha yelled out and Sharon came to her aid and began to survey the wound.
"Babe we gotta do something." Bucky said to Eva, worried that they weren't going to be able to hold up much longer against Ross.
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