Ch. 2
The Art of Kidnapping
I buried my face in my hoodie and screamed as I sat at a flashing red light while the train crossed the road. The wintery land was white with thick snow, the wind blowing loose bits of it in snakelike ribbons over the road. There I sat, brooding over the situation I was in.
I was hella rich. I had a killer getaway car already packed with a bug-out bag, supplies, and another vehicular device in the trunk in case the car was destroyed. I had safe houses everywhere, all of them set up for my needs and if I brought people with me. If I could get to them without being tracked, I would be in the clear. However, I was probably going to be going up against more than just the Wakandans, Wakandans that would be coming for me if only to know why I knew about the black panther.
Hydra had infamously stolen a large shipment of vibranium from the Wakandans in the past 50 years, meaning Hydra had had the resources to break into one of the most technologically advanced civilizations in the world. This meant Hydra would be keeping an eye on the Wakandans' movements, and the Wakandans would be keeping an eye out for Hydra. Sitting at the flashing lights of the train crossing, I swiftly began scrolling through my phone, looking for any mention of the Winter Soldier incident in Washington. I could feel a cold sweat breaking over my forehead, seeing nothing about the SHIELD files yet. Shit, shit, shit, this was not good. This meant that Hydra still had control over the Winter Soldier, and the events with SHIELD had not happened yet, meaning Hydra was still hiding in SHIELD, and SHIELD would probably be coming after me in short order now too. Which meant the Avengers might come after me due to SHIELD. Wakandans, Hydra, SHIELD, and Avengers would be the order of people after me. SHIT!
I stuffed my face in my bundled-up hoodie and started screaming again to relieve some of the tension I was feeling. I needed help, and fast. I might be rich, might be one of the best programmers in the world, might have a high-tech corporation that competed with Stark Tech nowadays, but I was not mentally prepared to deal with this shit. God, I should have made an Iron Man suit of my own, just so I wouldn't be a sitting duck like this right now. All I had were safe houses, getaway cars, and lots of money stashed everywhere, along with future knowledge. I paused to think about it. For a moment, I felt a flicker of hope. Maybe I wasn't so bad off... I mean I could shoot, had been in combat before… my gory death flashed before my eyes. Who was I kidding? I was screwed six ways till Sunday. Shit!
I gasped for air as my stress continued to ramp up. I needed to think of a way out of this, something, anything! I had thought that by keeping out of it, not involving myself, I could somehow ride this out, the mess that was the MCU. I didn't want to mess with the plot since things turned out just fine in the end, but it was either do or die, and the thought of dying again had me breaking out into a cold sweat. Who knew what Hydra would do if they got their hands on me? They had no problem with torture, murder, and whatever else struck their fancy. I was so screwed. I needed help desperately.
Mentally, I started going over the list of people who could help me and found myself starting to sweat again. There was a good chance they wouldn't be coming after me to help me if Shield got to them first.
If I could convince him, Steve Rogers was one man. A good man, but an unwavering, stubborn man. He would be too busy second-guessing my motives or being too certain of what he should do without fully understanding the situation. He tended to do that, and it was annoying. Tony Stark was a narcissist, meaning he probably wouldn't be willing to see me to begin with, not unless I kicked the door down to his home and somehow made this Avengers business. And even then, he probably wouldn't believe me. No one would believe me. Fuck.
Fury already suspected that something was amiss with Shield. He might believe me if I told him. But it could also blow his information-gathering operation, and he would be suspicious of me the entire time thinking me a Hydra plant made to lure him into action since the truth was too crazy to believe.
My mind began spinning through ideas and scenarios to get help each as unlikely as the next. Get help, get help… Wait… Get help. That triggered a memory. A lightbulb went off over my head.
I paused as a crazy idea took shape.
I sat, unseeing, as I ran it over in my mind, wondering about the wisdom of it. There was a good chance this could backfire stupendously.
However, I didn't have many options at the moment, and if my theory was correct, then the man in question might be watching my thoughts as I went over the ideas right at that moment. It was my only way to get my foot in the door so to speak. The man could read minds if need be, if he would vouch for me, he would be able to get one of the Avengers to vouch for me, giving me a slim shot of being able to get to them before Shieldra was able to get their hands on me. Making up my mind, I looked at the ceiling of my car, praying that he would be able to hear me.
"Heimdall? Heimdall can you hear me? Heimdall! Heimdall! Heimdall! Jesus, I hope you can hear me! Heimdall, I need you and Thor's help! Please read my mind. I need your help desperately! I don't know how long I have before they get to me! I need to find Steve, Natasha, Tony, and Fury before they get to me, and I need your help to do so. The Wakandans are probably monitoring me right now, wanting to know how I know about the Black Panther, and because of their sudden interest, Hydra is going to grab me. They have a brainwashed POW victim from the Second World War that they have trained into one of the world's most fearsome assassins, code name Winter Soldier. He has a silver arm made of vibranium. It's the left arm, and it has a red star on the shoulder. They will either send him after me to kill me or capture me for Hydra, and I know things that I shouldn't, things that can't fall into their hands." I said to my car ceiling, speaking in Old Norse. Admittedly, my pronunciation was probably terrible, so I repeated it a couple more times as the train crawled, internally screaming Heimdall's name at the heavens, showing him flashes of the future to come, hoping beyond hope that he would help me. Internally I also explained the situation with Shield being infiltrated by Hydra, and how he had the be careful not to alert Hydra that they were found out. If they did there was no telling what Hydra would do.
The train finished crossing the road, and I cursed, seeing the large black SUV that was sitting on the other side of the train tracks. Taking a deep breath, I steadied my nerves as I hit a point between panic and focus, fear and exhilaration. A plan suddenly made its home in my mind and I embraced it.
I pressed a button, and a small localized EMP was emitted from the roof of my getaway car. The lights for the car in front of me were cut off as their electrical system and their ability to call for reinforcements were fried.
A man with a silver arm wearing a mask and goggles leapt onto the roof of the SUV, toting a large gun. At the same time, I tapped a couple of buttons inside my car and picked up the handheld for the speaker that was on my car's roof.
"Longing." The man withthe silver arm froze.
"Rusted." He began to stagger. The hydra agents inside the car hopped out and started firing at me. The bulletproof glass of my windshield was starting to crack.
"Seventeen." I pressed a couple more buttons, and another screen appeared as two small guns came out of my car.
"Daybreak." I tapped the faces that the system was tracking, making sure to exclude the Winter Soldier.
"Furnace." The guns on my car began firing, and the agents who had been advancing on my car were struck by a hail of bullets, leaving only a couple in the back who had been close enough to the SUV to take cover.
"Nine," I began to drive around the SUV, letting my car's guns find the needed angle to kill the rest of the men as the Winter Soldier howled in pain atop the SUV.
"Benign." The last agent had somehow managed to get under the SUV and was firing on my tires, making me curse as one of them popped.
"Homecoming." I winced as the bulletproof glass of the windshield finally started to break, and I cocked a gun, ready to return fire.
"One." The agent seemed to run out of bullets and was wiggling out from under the SUV, making a run for the opposite direction. I slipped on my bulletproof vest and Kevlar gloves. I got out of the car, heading for the SUV. I hopped onto the hood of the SUV. The Winter Soldier groaned in pain behind his mask and goggles, his eyes hazy through the glass as I stared down at him and cocked my semi-automatic. With cold eyes, I took aim.
"Freight car." With that, I fired once. The running Hydra agent in the distance fell and didn't get back up. The quivering Winter Soldier's body went limp, his eyes blank.
"готов подчиниться," he said dully, voice slightly muffled. Ready to comply, my mind automatically translated. Good to know that I was still up to date on my Russian then.
"Come, soldier, I have a mission for you. Take my hand," I said quietly in English, my face twisted with regret and sadness, as I held out my hand. A part of my heart was breaking doing this to this man, to command him like this, but another part, the ruthlessly logical part, knew that between me and Hydra, I wouldn't hurt him, and I would be setting him free when I was able.
Unthinkingly, he took my hand, and I helped him up. He was heavy, but I didn't skip arm and back day like a chump. He was sweating and shaking slightly, his pupils wider than they should be. It could have just been me using the code words on him. Or this could be a hint of something else.
My lips pursed as fanfiction debates on whether they had kept the Winter Soldier hooked on drugs or not percolated in my mind. I would see if he started going in withdrawal over the next few days. If he did we would ween him off of it. I hopped off the car and offered him my hand to help him down. He took it and made to jump hard off the car.
"Gently," I murmured, and his form adjusted mid-motion to be less harmful on his body. I had him rip off the windshield of my car, then the steering wheel.
"Search the car for bugs," I said in Russian, and he moved to comply.
I dug in the cooler I had in the back seat. Under the sandwich meats and bread, I found what I was looking for. I returned with a blood packet that contained my blood and began to coat the car in strategic locations to mimic non-fatal wounds. That way, they would be looking for me to be seeking medical attention now.
Without a word, the Winter Soldier returned, eyes blank as he held up two tracking devices. My lips pursed seeing the Kimoyo bead. God they had already been tracking me, I knew it. I could feel my stress levels rise again at the confirmation of my thoughts. I removed it from his flesh hand and placed it in his metal hand.
"Crush it," I said in Russian, the stress and words making my voice sound rougher and deeper. There was a popping sound as the Kimoyo bead was crushed with his vibranium arm. I tossed it into the snowy field before looking at the second tracker. It had been disabled by the EMP.
"Put this one back where you found it," I said before going to the trunk of the car. That was the nice thing about living out in the middle of nowhere in Canada. There still wasn't anyone around as I began to pull the compact machine out of the trunk of the car. The winter soldier returned, looking blank as he watched me work to remove the contraption from the trunk. With a grunt, I finished removing the contraption. It was a folded piece of metal that made a square. I paused to look at the unmoving man.
"Go raid the SUV for any guns, weapons, ammo, money, and winter gear. Get the least bloody parka that's your size and put it on. Make sure there are no trackers in any of it. Wait," I called, spotting the reddening of his nose and cheeks from the cold. I sighed before removing my winter hat and scarf. He was unmoving as I managed to wrangle his long hair under the light pink hat before I wrapped the light pink scarf around his neck. Then I began rubbing his hands to warm them. Unseen to me, a flicker of confusion crossed his blank face. Content that his hands were warmer, I withdrew and sent him to carry on his tasks.
I then set about setting up the contraption, unfolding it into a long slim shape, installing the tires, and locking the folding parts in place until I had the sleek form of a motorcycle set up. It wasn't the best for this weather, but no one would be looking for a bike in this area and I still had transportation despite my car being trashed, so those who wanted to point out how impractical it was could go suck it. Yeah, it was hella impractical, but to be fair not everything could go perfectly all the time. Whatever worked I guess. When he returned, I grabbed my own bug-out bag from the car, knowing it was packed full of cash, guns, ammo, knives, fake, and real passports, and basic survival gear. I then went over the car, making sure to detach the guns from their spots and replacing them with benign lights, to hide the fact that I had had guns mounted on my car.
I had the Winter Soldier put all the dead Hydra goons back in their SUV in the front seat. I then had him lift the SUV so that I could drive the hood of my car under it. My car's electrical battery was now under the majority of the bodies that were in the front of the car.
Making sure there was nothing incriminating on my car, I fried the electrical system with an internal EMP as if my car had been fried by the original EMP. Then, the electrical fire in the battery started as intended. Soon, the two cars were blazing as heavy snow began to fall. Electrical car fires can burn underwater for days, and with the amount of damage that would occur, there would barely be any evidence left of what had happened. Their bones would be ash from that fire erasing bullet wounds in their bones and bodies. My plates and VIN had already been removed, so there were no identifying marks on the car that could give it away. I got on the customized motorcycle and kicked it to life. I dug through my bag until I found a pair of oversized gloves and tossed them to the winter soldier.
"See if those fit," I said, and he complied without a word as I pulled up the thick hood of my winter parka. I nodded contentedly when the gloves fir him just fine and gestured for him to hop on. He did, and we set off for one of my safe houses, the closest one. He didn't speak as we drove, leaving the past behind, at least... for now.
AN: It's been too long guys! Can't tell you how many writes and rewrites of this I have made. I have a large file filled with the original snippets haha. I might post them as Omakes of how differently the story could have gone if I hadn't done things this way. I don't know, what do you think? This definitely veered wildly off the original path which was why I never posted after this. I couldn't decide how this next part should start until now. Hope it's ok! Hoping to write more on this soon! Ch. 3 is already in the works!