The Curse of Dr. Zola
Chapter 20
In the morning, the men got up fairly early, with Mary trailing behind sleepily. She poured hot water from the kettle into her cup. Dunking her tea bag repeatedly, she joined them at the table, putting her head down on it.
Bucky reached over and absent-mindedly smoothed down her unruly morning hair. "She's not an early riser."
Mary responded by shaking her head back and forth.
"I'm sorry if we woke you." Steve apologized.
Mary just sort of mumbled; the sound muffled by her arms.
"She said it's okay."
She picked her head up. "Why don't you take him on a run thru your boot camp course?"
"Boot camp course?" Steve looked at Bucky curiously.
"Yeah, it'll be fun!"
Mary got up and started making breakfast. Since Bucky ate like a lumberjack, she doubled everything. Bucky got up and helped. He gave Steve the job of setting the table.
Mary got herself a bowl of cold cereal, while the men ate eggs, bacon, oatmeal, toast, juice and coffee.
"So, tell me about this course, Buck."
"I built it based on the obstacle course we had a boot camp, but much harder. You'll love it! It has a crawl under space, used tires to step into, overhead monkey bars, a cargo net wall to scale, a zip line, and a water hazard with a swing rope, a rock wall, balance beams, vaulting logs, and a Burma rope bridge."
"Sounds fun, let's go!"
"I'm going to shower while you guys are out. Have fun!"
The men got changed and met out front. Mary watched them jog down the trail until they disappeared, then she got ready for her shower. She figured she had a good hour, maybe 90 minutes before they got back.
From the tree line, he watched the men leave from his position, until they had vanished around the apple trees and rock wall behind the house. He scanned the house using the latest in heat seeking technology, and discovered where the woman of the house was. He used the time to sneak up and position himself. When he knew she was moving about the house, he banged on the front door.
Mary was startled at the sudden loud knocking and glanced at the clock. It had only been 20 minutes!
She went to the front door thinking Bucky had forgotten his keys…again. Ready to chastise him gently, she opened the door only to see Iron Man's palm powered up right in her face.
"Back up. Keep your hands where I can see them."
Mary backed up very slowly; her hands clutched the towel she had wrapped around her. She was taken by surprise and was afraid.
Tony kicked the door shut behind him. "Where did they go?"
"The, the, the obstacle course in the back."
"How long do you expect them to be gone?"
"An hour, maybe."
"Good. That's long enough for us to have a chat."
Bucky and Steve raced each other over the course, both of them trying to gain ground over the other. Bucky had a distinct advantage as he knew the layout better, but Steve was not going to give up so easily.
The last part of the course was a sprint to the finish line. Bucky beat Steve by a fraction of a second.
Half laughing and half catching their breath, they congratulated each other on a well-run race.
"I don't usually have competition out here; you pushed me to be better."
"This must have taken a lot of work, Buck. You built this?'
Bucky nodded. "I wanted to finish my training; the training I started in '44. I knew I had to up my game, so I added a few things since then."
"It's a challenge alright. I like it."
"Well, stay with us for a while and we can train together."
"What is Mary going to say to that?"
"Believe me when I say that she'll be over the moon. Let's get back and get showered."
"Race you back!" Steve launched himself without warning, leaving Bucky trying to catch up.
"Oh no you don't." Bucky took off after him.
Steve won the race back to the house, but Bucky was right behind him. They were laughing as they entered the house.
In the kitchen, out of sight, Mary sat on a chair. Tony still had his palm weapon aimed at her.
"Call him!" Tony hissed, never taking his eyes off her.
In a trembling voice she shouted for Bucky. "BUCKY! BUCKY!"
Both men were instantly alarmed by the fear in her voice and ran to the kitchen to see Iron Man keeping Mary all but hostage.
"Hold up there now. Don't make any sudden moves." Tony warned them.
Steve held Bucky back from storming the kitchen and taking Tony out.
"What's the meaning of this?" Steve demanded.
"We're all going to have a nice little chat."
"Mary, did he hurt you? I swear to God if you hurt her…."
"I'm okay, Buck, just scared. He took me by surprise."
"Why don't you two take those seats there, and we'll all have that nice conversation." He turned to Mary. "Is he the one making my life hell?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Mary was shivering in her towel.
"He's the Winter Soldier, isn't he?" Tony appraised Bucky for a moment before realizing what that meant. "Are you the Wicked Witch?"
Mary looked at Bucky.
Tony retracted his helmet. "And now we have Captain America, back from the Ice Age."
"Who the hell are you?" Steve demanded.
"He's Tony Stark." Mary supplied.
"Stark? Are you related to Howard?"
"That was my father! Now, what I want to know who is going to tell me what they know about my father's Revidic reversion technology?"
"I've told you that none of us know anything about it!"
"Don't lie to me! I saw the ad in the paper. It was very specific."
"We just used those words because we knew that only Steve would know where those words were spoken. We wanted to find him, to meet up with him. We couldn't go to Steve, so we thought we'd bring him to us."
"But how would you even know about the technology, let alone know what he said or where he said…" Tony stopped to think. "You were there." He said to Steve.
"Yes, I was there. The car rose into the air for about 5 seconds and then crashed to the ground. I worked with Howard in the army during the war."
"The vita-rays….I saw some of the leftover notes my father made. You were an army experiment."
"It was developed by Dr. Abraham Erskine, but Howard helped."
Tony moved a little closer to Mary. "How did you know Steve was there that night?" Mary drew back.
"I knew! Now, leave her alone!" Bucky stood up. "Come over here, Mary."
Mary slid off her chair and nestled herself up to Bucky. "Stop threatening her, deal with me."
"Explain."
"I knew the words because I was there."
"That's impossible! I can see why Rogers would know. This had better be good."
Bucky explained it to him in a nutshell.
"So, where is this time capsule?" Tony finally asked.
"It's in my basement. We tried to get an appointment with you for months, but kept getting denied. We thought you might be the only one who could help us. We can't even get married!"
"Show me."
They brought him downstairs and showed him the secret room, the time capsule and the generator.
Tony disengaged from his Iron Man suit and began examining the machine.
"This is incredible! It seems very similar to my arc reactor. I've got to get this back to my lab and take it apart."
"NO! My mother left everything here to me, including the capsule and the generator. It powers my house along with the solar panels. It runs my electricity, my hot water, and my heat. You can't just take it away and leave us with no heat. It stays. It belongs to me." She looked up at Bucky. "It belongs to both of us."
Tony looked at her. She had a fierce determination in her eyes, but Tony also saw something else, something he didn't expect to find. She had true love in her eyes; true love for the man next to her.
Tony's ill temperament softened. "I'll take a look at it and let you know what I think."
Bucky sent Mary upstairs to get dressed while the men watched Tony examine the apparatus.
He managed to take off the roof of the generator and that's as far as he got. Steve stopped him.
"Don't touch that!"
"What? This?" Tony pointed to the source of the blue glow.
"I watched a man disintegrate holding a cube of blue…whatever it was, and this looks very similar."
"Ok, not touching that."
Mary re-entered the room, and peered into the guts of the generator. "Wow, that kinda reminds me of Mom's necklace."
"Your mom had a glowing blue necklace?" Tony looked at her.
"No, it was orange actually."
Bucky interrupted. "I think I remember your grandmother wearing an orange stone on a chain around her neck."
Mary went white. "An orange stone? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, yeah, I think so."
She grabbed Bucky by his biceps, and gave him a little shake. "Are you sure, Bucky? I need you to be absolutely sure."
"Why? What's the matter?"
Mary ran for the composition book and brought it back downstairs.
"Where is it? Where is it?"
"What are you looking for, Mary?"
She flipped pages in the book. "I saw it in here somewhere."
Her eyes scanned the book. "Here it is. Read this Bucky."
Bucky read the passage that Mary had pointed out to him, and his eyes grew wide.