A/N: Commandos at work
HYDRA is tough, sure, but apparently also stupid. It doesn't seem to matter how many factories they level, the next facility never sees them coming.
Something explodes behind him and Steve is pretty sure he can hear Dernier's distinctive slightly manic chuckle, as a wave of heat and force sweeps over them. Guy loves his job, that's for sure.
A masked guard is standing in between them and the control panel they need to access. The goal is to make him surrender to interrogation - but so far the guy won't play ball. He keeps scanning from Steve's face to Bucky's. Bucky has a gun leveled straight between where the guy's eyes should be, and a glare that could cut glass etched onto his face. Several yards behind them Morita is busy helping Jones bring down the guy's stupidly enormous and apparently pretty useless partner. Steve's doing his best to intimidate the smarter one into giving up.
"Just step away." Steve orders, in his strongest Captain America voice.
"Who are you?" The guard hisses, taking a step back. He hasn't lowered his gun yet, but he hasn't made any move to fire it either. He looks like he's weighing the odds and finding that they're no longer in his favor.
"That's Captain America." Bucky informs the black-clad guard blithely, inclining his head toward Steve. "An' this-," he cocks the sidearm very deliberately, aim never wavering for an instant, "-is the part where you surrender or we splatter you off a couple'a walls."
The guard stares at them wordlessly for a moment, then seems to reach a decision. "Cut off one head, two more will take it's place." The barrel of the enormous weapon moves to level with with Steve's chest. "Hail HY-"
The sharp report of a shot going off echoes through the room and the guard drops before his finger can pull the trigger; a clean hole through his forehead.
"Warned 'im." Bucky says simply, voice hard and angry. He whirls on his heel and puts a matching hole through the skull of the other guard, who's flailing around trying to land a huge hammy hand in Moirta's face. The guy twists at the impact of the shot, and Jones just manages to dive out of the way before 300 pounds of goon comes down on top of him.
Morita glares at Bucky as he helps Jones back up to his feet. "We were tryin' to take someone alive here, Barnes!" he snaps, ducking as another, smaller explosion sends bits of a wall over their heads. "Y'can't just plug everybody we come across. We need intel!"
"These assholes never cooperate." Bucky shrugs, utterly unrepentant as he clicks another round into his gun, glancing sidelong at Steve like he's reassuring himself that the Captain's unharmed. "An' my job's getting all you idiots back to base alive. I get chewed out somethin' fierce, you come back dead."
"He might've given us somethin', Buck…" Steve starts, but Bucky just tilts a glare in his direction. Steve sighs, letting it go for now, and setting about getting what they need from the console.
"Or he mighta put a hole in you. I'm feelin' pretty good about my call, here." Bucky plants himself at Steve's six and crosses his arms firmly.
"Fortunately, we have a location for two more factories." Steve calls over his shoulder. "But Jim's right, Buck, we need to collect whatever intel we can get."
"You look me in the eye and tell me you think that fuckhead was gonna talk, and drinks are on me next time we hit civilization." Bucky challenges, raising an eyebrow.
Steve glances at the dead guard, hesitates, then sighs. "The other guy might've."
"Check his mouth." Bucky suggests, unimpressed. "Bet you ten dollars he had one'a those little pills in there, in case we did take 'im alive."
Jones and Morita glance at each other and shrug. A few minutes later, Steve takes Morita's muffled swearing as verification.
He tries not to notice the smug satisfaction on his friend's face.