Hold on
CH2
Falcon was in the air above the small town in the remote Siberian wilderness. He was monitoring the caravan of S.H.E.I.L.D Hum-vs and trucks carrying the citizens down the winding snow covered road when he heard a rumble of explosions erupt along the steep jagged mountain side. Sam Wilson’s jaw dropped at the unexpected eruption that set off a ripple through the treacherous landscape. Instantly he knew what was about to happen and as he swooped down toward the caravan of people about to be crushed by the impending avalanche, he had only a moment to glance over his shoulder in shock as he heard another round of explosions from 20 miles off in the direction of his team mates. Sam felt an icy stab of dread pierce his heart as he blinked in breathless shock at the clouds of smoke rising in the near distance. He watched for only another split second with growing alarm as a small platoon of bomber jets appeared from nowhere closing in no his teammate’s location. He let out a shout of anger as he knew without a doubt that the planes were not a relief team from SHEILD.
There was no time to think or plan, only make a choice and respond. The former paratrooper gritted his teeth in frustration turning away from the sky line and towards the imminent avalanche. Falcon flew as fast as he could toward the first SHEILD truck that was leading the caravan toward the base of the mountain where a Helicarrier awaited to transport the civilians to Moscow for medical containment and evaluation. Sam knew that the only chance they had was to get out of the path of destruction soon to be brought by the onslaught of snow.
Thankfully, the field agent in charge was on the same page and the muscular Blond woman appeared out of the open window of the moving Truck with a large plasma cannon hoisted over her shoulder. She did not hesitate as she threw it into the air just as Falcon swooped down to catch it. Sam zoomed ahead around the corner of the mountain scape and instantly fired the continuous heated blast into the side of the solid rock that vaporized into dust particles as a tunnel was created. Sam gnashed his teeth as he held the heavy cannon in place, his eyes glancing in desperation toward the oncoming Snow. Sweat dripped down his brow as his goggles protected his eyes from the clouds of dust and rock debris. After a few more precious moments he stopped and covered his mouth as he flew up and away from the air that was thick and heavy with minerals. The Falcon gasped a breath of air as he watched with wide frantic eyes as the first SHEILD truck entered the newly created cavern followed by the others transport vehicles that were racing against time as the Snow began to mix with the dust, coving the road. Sam had to fly up and away, high enough to avoid the crushing snow.
His body trembled with adrenalin as he heard the cries for help in his ear piece, Natasha sounding in pain and out of breath before a blanket of static drown her out. Sam looked into the distance as he gripped the Plasma cannon with both arms, and pointed them toward the six stealth jets that had just released their missals on the target location and were now headed back toward the town to finish off what the first round of explosions had started. Even as Falcon let out a steady breath and prepared to take on the multiple Flying hostels he swallowed back the nauseating certainty that The Avengers had been lured into a trap. Who was most likely responsible was an even more sickening realization. With only moments to spare he pressed his com badge as he cleared his throat.
“This is Folcan, Mayday,……..We are a code Red. I repeat Code Red.”
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Captain America through his shield with a cry of alarm into an engine of a HYDRA truck that was loaded down with Vibranium. His body was tense as he held his ear piece and called out to Sam as he punched and kicked two combatant agents.
“Falcon,….. Sam,…..What’s happening!” The Captain shouted then jumped out of the way of a blast from an energy cannon just before Ironman flew by and neutralized the threat with Repulsor beams.
“Ironman…..” The Captain shouted as he ran toward his shield, taking out three more gunmen as he went.
“I heard him Cap!........ Jarvis…….” Tony’s commanding voice boomed just as Thor flew by sending lighting down on three advancing Tanks.
I have already dispatched the Stark security enforcement Driods to the Falcon’s immediate coordinates Sir
“Response time from New York?” Ironman demanded as he blew up two more escaping Hydra trucks full of precious metal.
No Sir. From your facility just outside of London that Ms. Pots had approved of. They should arrive in approximately 97 minutes sir.
“God I love that woman’s foresight!” Tony quipped as he sent an EPG into a cluster of soviet weaponry that was aimed at the Thunder God.
“That’s too long Stark!” The Captain shouted as his shield ricochet off another Hydra Tank and back into his arms as he ran toward Tony.
“Roger that Rogers!........Open to suggestions!” Tony huffed as he was blown back by a stealth sonic wave from an unseen location.
“Vision, Scarlet Witch………Status report!” The Captain heaved as he crouched down under his shield just as an onslaught of shrapnel exploded above him.
“I am disarming an extensive net work of cybernetic landmines that have been hidden within the village preventing evacuation.” Vision’s always calm voice was spoken in hast, aware of the urgency.
“I have control of six Hydra agents, there are still 10 more active” Wanda spoke in her thick accent as she crept slowly through the land minded village, careful of her steps as she lead the six armed men who followed her without question, lost in her mental manipulation.
“Alright,….. Who can fly fastest?” The Captain huffed as he was hammered down by the Sonic wave cannon that Stark had just been struck with.
“I Do!” Three voices belonging to Ironman, Thor and Vision all responded in unison and Steve rolled his eyes.
“Look just because you have a Hammer…..” Tony began but was cut off by Thor.
“Ironman your energy in still only made by man and limited by the elements of your realm.” Thor snorted as he directed a large lighting bolt at a stealth jet boomer that had just sprayed the fleeing minors and Avengers with bullets.
“Oh and of course magic beats science nowadays!” Stark huffed.
“Enough both of you, We don’t know what the others are up against. We need to send help NOW!” The Captain spoke with an obvious undercurrent of fear. Steve took on three more men with a desperate ferocity as he tried not to assume the worse.
“Captain I can provide aid to our teammates immediately If Ironman can take over the technical disarmament of the landmines.” Vision spoke again with patient authority, not challenging just simply stating as fact.
“Good!...... Vision Go help Falcon and keep us informed…… Ironman take over for him back at their village, Thor and I can handle the Mine while T’Challa helps arm his people are gather a resistance.” The Captain gave the order as he nodded toward Ironman who took of grumbling about smart mouth Androids and cosmic stones. Steve fought with reckless abandonment as he felt the uneasy worry threaten to distract him. The Captain hated feeling helpless and it was times like this that he envied those in his command who had powers of flight. As He threw his Shield again he let out a breathless prayer that his friends were uninjured, and that Bucky wasn’t in danger.
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The Sargent fixed Rumlow with a hateful scowl as he contemplated grabbing his third and final hidden knife from inside his boot to through directly into Rumlows right eye. As if he could read his thoughts, Rumlow shook his head and made a tut tut noise with his tongue as he waged a finger, a smirk growing on his disfigured face.
“Common now,……. None of that…… I know that look Soldier!” Rumlow chastised as he glanced casually toward Bucky’s right boot where the third knife was hidden. The Sargent narrowed his eyes as he studied the Hydra Strike team captain, a man who seemed to know him, or at least the Winter Soldier, better then he did himself. Rumlow met his gaze and they shared a look, a silent communication and an unspoken connection that Bucky could not deny but also could not quite comprehend. The two men studied each other for a long moment before one of the Hydra operatives stepped forward and shouted in Russian.
“We don’t have time for you to gaze into his eyes Cowboy,…….We need to secure the Asset and move him before his comrades arrive!” The Russian operative barked and behind him the others snickered.
“I am not an Asset you Red, Commie Bastard!..........I have a FUCKING NAME!” Sargent Barnes roared in desperate anger that stemmed from a gut wrenching panic the moment he heard the familiar term that he hated more than his code name. Winter Soldier was not a name he had chosen for himself but at least it was a name. Asset was derogatory and made him feel like Hydra’s property.
He was answered by a swift kick in his back from the closet Hydra guard who then stepped on the side of Bucky’s head smashing his face against the cement floor.
“YOU ARE HYDRA”S WEPON…….YOU DO NOT SPEAK UNLESS I SAY!” The Guard hissed in Russian as he ground his heel against Bucky’s cheek bone and the Sargent spat back a slue of Russian curses before Rumlow grunted in annoyance and shoved the Russian’s leg back off of Bucky’s head. He rolled his eyes then looked up at them with mild agitation and subdued hostility.
“I am lead on this mission Captain Andropov…….Get the trucks ready to move and make sure the Cryo tank is secured!” Rumlow stayed knelt infornt of Barnes but he held the other officer’s intense stair until the man snorted and took a step back, grubling some orders at two of the men who walked out of the room. Rumlow looked back down at Bucky who was trying to control the shiver that raked through his body at the mention of the Cryo Tube. The Sargent kept his expression guarded but also fixed Rumlow with an appraising look. The burned man huffed a laugh as he sat back on his butt, legs bent, one up and one down, easy and relaxed.
“Didn’t know I spoke Russian huh?” Rumlow chuckled as he took out a cigarette and offered the pack towards Bucky who just glared at him. He shrugged and put them away before lighting one. He took a long drag then after a thoughtful look he leaned forward and spoke in a low tone.
“Had to learn it once you got shipped State side,………. all messed up and wild eyed,…….. screaming yer head off in Russian and trying to slit yer own throat after what those Commies did to ya.” Rumlow mused. He gave Bucky a knowing look then glanced up at the other Russian Hydra agents and back to the silent Soldier that was glaring at him with labored, wheezing breaths. “But Don’t you worry about it Big Guy,… I won’t leave you alone with them this time……. I’ll be around to make sure these Commie Bustards keep their hands to them selves….. and their dicks in their pants!”
Rumlow winked with a sly smile as Bucky’s face went pale and a tremor ran through him, eyes wide as he clenched his jaw and finally looked away with deep shame and sickening horror. The Sargent squeezed his eyes shut as an array of ugly, humiliating memories ripped through his mind’s eye and he swallowed back the urge to through-up as he choked on a muffled whimper. Almost gently Rumlow ruffled the Soldier’s short brown hair as if to reassure him.
“That’s why I wouldn’t go throwing any knifes my way Soldier,….. I am gonna be the only friend you got out here in the Motherland, and I am gonna need both eyes to keep watch over that backside of yours.” Rumlow smiled as he whispered while patting the restrained Sargent like a pet dog. “We both know just how perverted and twisted these Russian Hydra agents can be,….. and these boys have been bunkered up in fucking Siberia for over a year,…. Just waiting to get you back and in their control.” Rumlow smirked as he sat back with a satisfied look on his disfigured face and took another long drag as Bucky hid his contorted expression with his flesh arm, body shaking in rage and fear and humility.
“Don’t Listen to him Barnes!...... Whatever he’s saying to you is Bullshit!” Hawkeye shouted from across the room after watching Bucky’s shattered reaction to Rumlow’s whispered words. He grunted in pain as one of the Hydra soldiers jabbed him with a stun baton into the side of his neck before he crumbled to the ground next to Natasha, wheezing as he struggled to keep his eyes locked with The Sargent who fixed him with a desperate look before turning back toward Rumlow.
“Let them go!....... You have me, I’ll go willingly if you order those Russian scum to back off!” Bucky growled at Rumlow with a tone that was a mixture of plea and demand, blue eyes a torrent of emotion. He was answered by a smirk from Rumlow who turned toward the nervous man in the lab coat who was fussing over the old computer and maintenance chair.
“That thing ready yet Doc,…. We’re on a bit of a time crunch here.” Rumlow sighed as he took a final drag and put it out on the bottom of his boot before standing up. The man in the lab coat turned with an uncertain expression and a shake of his head as he rubbed his neck.
“This whole set up is from the 60’s…….It’s outdated soviet technology that hasn’t been used in decades.” The technician huffed in annoyance, his English accent indigent. “I am trying to translate the last technicians notes to know how to adjust the voltage accordingly but….” The Doctor was silenced as the Sargent’s last knife was thrown directly through his Trachea.
Instantly Rumlow stepped back with slight surprise and then turned toward Bucky who was trying to deflect and fight back against the four Russian Hydra guards who advanced on him with stun buttons and boots that kicked his already fractured ribs. There was a flurry of motion and one Hydra pon was sent flying across the room and another landed hard on the floor before he received a jaw shattering boot to his teeth from a franticly defensive Sargent Barnes who was desperately fighting back..
“Enough!” Rumlow barked as he shouted at the guards and pushed them back, gesturing for two of them to drag the man with the broken jaw away. He sighed and whipped his face as he shook his head starring down at the gasping Soldier who was curled in over himself protecting his injured torso and bleeding head wound, twitchy from the aftershocks of the stun batons.
“Dammint Soldier!” Rumlow sighed again as he glanced with annoyance at the dying Lab Tec with a shake of his head and a huff, glaring at the gurgling last moments of the twitching man. Rumlow again squatted down and met the blue eyes that shown bright with pain and desperation between fresh streaks of blood. “ You are going into that chair one way or another,….. but now we are just gonna have to wing it and hope we don’t over fry that stubborn brain of yours!!!!” Rumlow huffed as he shook his head again and looked at the Sargent with a sad, disappointed frown.
“Fuck,…….You!” Bucky growled with shallow, pained breaths as blood dripped from his lips, teeth clenched, a defiant and determined grimace on his face. Rumlow looked at him with an amused huff and rolled his eyes as he sighed, rubbing his eyes before he looked up at another Hydra agent and nodded.
Bucky hissed in reaction as three tranquilizer darts landed in the side of his neck. Almost immediately he felt the paralyses over take his tensed body and he slumped heavily onto the ground with a animalistic grunt, limp and only able to make clumsy, jerking movements. It was not like other sedatives however as his mind was alert and active, screaming at his useless body to fight back and do something as Rumlow turned off the magnetic plate that had held him immobile. The Burned man took a few steps forward then used his boot to push the limp Soldier onto his back. He looked down at the prone figure who was wheezing shallow breaths, his eyes frantic as he struggled to move his useless muscles. With a frustrated and helpless cry of rage the Sargent locked his panicked eyes on Rumlow, a storm of emotion pouring out from his blue gaze, pleading and threatening, wide and desperate.
“You are stupid Cowboy,….. We should have used zee tranqulizers first,…. Before he could kill doctor.” One of the Russians huffed in accented English as he slung the dart gun onto his shoulder.
“They don’t last long on him you Russian moron,….. I was waiting for the Doc to say the chair was ready.” Rumlow spat and then glared down at Bucky with mild resentment.
“Guess you were just anxious to get back into your thrown huh Big Guy,…… reclaim that title as Fist of Hydra!” Rumlow smirked as he looked away from the blue pleading eyes that tugged at the heartstrings Rumlow long ago severed. Empathy was weakness. Plan and simple.
“Rumlow,……. Don’t do it!........ He wont be any use to Hydra if you destroy his mind,…..damage his brain so he can’t even follow orders or hold a gun!” Barton shouted between pained gasps as he spit out blood, his throat muscles swollen and damaged from the shock of the stun baton. The Avenger had managed to sit up on his knees again and was glaring at Rumlow with hatred and disgust.
“Hah!.......Ain’t like I got a lot of options here Agent Barton!........ Not after your team has taken out so many of our bases in the civilized world,….. The Avengers destroyed the Maintenance chairs that had been specifically calibrated to ensure we wouldn’t cause unnecessary damage!” Rumlow spat in irritation as he took a step toward Hawkeye who looked from Rumlow toward the Russians who were cutting Bucky’s combat jacket from his injured body as the Sargent lay limp in their hands, muscles spasiming as he tried to fight the paralysis.
“So now here we are!....... A dead Technician and retro model chair,……. Hell,….. we don’t even have all the fancy chemicals they use to inject him with before freezing so he wouldn’t have to heal from hypothermia when he comes out…….” Rumlow laughed as he threw a hand up helplessly. “But hey,… sometimes ya gotta work with what ya got,….. right?” Rumlow smirked at Barton’s heated glare. The statement had been a shared joke between the two men only a few years before when they had been on a mission together for SHEILD, trapped behind enemy lines and without any weapons. Rumlow had been Injured and when he asked what the hell they were supposed to do, Hawkeye had just helped him stand and then half carried him as he joked about the virtues of improvising.
Clint looked past Rumlow toward Sargent Barnes, a man he had spent more than a year and a half getting to know. He had bared witness to the unmaking of the Winter Soldier and the rebirth of Sargent James Buchannan Barnes, a long and tedious process that was both painful to watch and humbling. Hawkeye had been there from the beginning and had seen him fight and claw his way back from the programming and conditioning that he had been a slave to for so long. Barton had helped him see hope when he was overcome with despair and had reassured him when he doubted his own sanity. He respected Bucky and just like Steve and the others, he was disgusted by what Hydra had subjected him to and the unbearable suffering that he had been struggling to recover from. They were more than allies and teammates, they were friends and he felt a burning rage and desperate need to prevent what was about to happen. Where the hell was Falcon!
Rumlow turned toward the other Hydra agents as they dragged the limp but fully conscious and aware body towards the chair, hosting him up and into position. The Sargent’s bare torso was covered in blood from the large gash in his right side as was his face from the head wound. One of the Russian guards grumbled as he took a wet cloth and roughly whipped away some of the blood. Rumlow walked over and inspected the head wound before grunting in annoyance as he looked down and met The Soldier’s terrified eyes that were large and wet, short panicked gasps of air choking out through his open mouth.
“And probably a concussion on top of every thing else?....... Christ Soldier,…… we are just ignoring all the protocols with this one!......... I hope that Super Soldier serum holds up!....... But thanks to your little stunt with the Doc over there….” Rumlow gestured with his head toward the dead man in the white coat. “We are just going to cross our fingers and hope for the best!......... Improvise,…. Right Clint?” Rumlow chuckled and patted the side of the Soldier’s face before he stepped away and smiled at Barton over his shoulder who was almost shaking with rage.
Barton looked from Rumlow back toward Bucky once more as the paralyzed man began making pleading noises in his throat, eyes wide and full of fear as the other Hydra agents manually lowered the head restraint and adjusted the restraints tight over his twitching arms, legs and chest. Bucky’s frantic eyes darted toward Hawkeye as he hyperventilated, unable to control the sheer terror that was so visible in his tearful gaze. With a choked cry he blinked and a single tear escaped down his cheek, then another before he closed his eyes tight as a man roughly shoved a mouth guard in-between his teeth. Clint felt his stomach turn and he croaked out a desperate reassurance to his distressed teammate, aware that this was Bucky’s worse nightmare come true, to once more be strapped into the chair that burned away who he was and left him empty.
“We will find you Sargent Barnes,….. I promise,…… Your stronger than them,….. Just try to hold on……” Clint’s words were desperate and meaningless as a lever was pulled and the lights flickered. The sound of electricity filled the air along with the stench of burning hair and flesh as Bucky’s body lurched in the restraints and he screamed in a way that was truly horrifying as blue electrical currents covered his head and face.
The sight was sickening and the sound of Bucky’s screams mixed with the smell of blood, sweat and burning flesh was all consuming. Clint was clenching his own teeth as he looked away and down toward Natasha who was so still she looked dead. Hawkeye shook as he felt a sense of desperation and helplessness that was almost foreign to him and so debilitating that he could not help but feel tears in his own eyes as he listened to his friend’s soul shattering cries of agony.