Chapter 1
“It’s cold in here.” Penny shivered and rubbed her hands over her arms as she followed Bucky deeper down the stairs of the thick stone Hydra compound. After the dust had settled on Berlin and everyone had enough time and space so they could finally see straight again, the Avengers reconvened, well what was left of them at least, and took up a new mission: scrubbing any trace of the project behind the Winter Soldier off the face of the Earth.
After months of pleading and trying to prove herself, after the Ferry and the Vulture and the parking deck had fallen on her, Tony had finally relented and let her join on a few missions. She had been doing well, so far, and the rush of dopamine she got when Tony smiled and ruffled her hair after a mission was like a drug.
“Does that arm let you feel?” Penny tried again after getting nothing but silence from the stoic Winter Soldier. “Like if you run your fingers over the wall do your neural sensors tell you, ‘that wall is cold’?” She had been prodding the brooding man with questions the entire mission, to no avail. Tony had sent the two of them ahead of the pack to scout the base, telling Penny that under no circumstances was she to engage. Just stay quiet and follow Bucky’s orders.
“I can’t believe Mr. Stark let me go with you on this.” Penny laughed to herself. She had given up on expecting Bucky to talk back but silence made her twitchy. However, her comment had finally grabbed his attention and his head twitched back at her for a moment.
“You know, because of all the… killing his parents stuff?” She squeaked out, immediately regretting her words. Bucky just gave an irritated sigh and turned forward, again.
“There’s normally not this much talking on a stealth mission,” He bit out in an irritated whisper.
“Right, right,” Penny mumbled to herself before nearly running into Bucky, who had come to a halt at the corner.
“Wait here. And be quiet.” Penny huffed out a sigh before crossing her arms and nodding begrudgingly, listening as Bucky swiftly put down what sounded like five men. Although every inch of her itched to join him, she restrained herself to her spot, instead listening for any sign that the fight was going badly. Which, judging by the yells of pain coming from the Hydra agents, that was not the case. She knew Tony only kept letting her come on these missions because so far, she had followed his orders. That didn’t mean she wasn’t looking for any chance to prove herself despite them.
“Okay, the room’s clear.” Bucky panted out in a half yell to Penny. She strutted out from around the corner, letting out a low wolf whistle as she stepped over the bodies of the unconscious men. Bucky ignored her, busying himself with frisking the men, searching for a keycard for the next door.
“Why even ask me to come?” Penny questioned, jokingly, kicking rubble off one of the guy’s stomachs.
“I’m asking myself the same question.” Bucy deadpanned in response, not even looking up from the computer he was now hovering over.
“Ha. Funny.” Penny retorted, coming to sit opposite him on the desk, swinging her feet in mock boredom as Bucky frantically tapped away at the keyboard.
“I could help with that, you know…” Penny taunted in a sing-songy voice, watching as Bucky’s frustration mounted, whatever he was looking for remaining unfound.
“No,” He quickly barked out. “Just watch the stairwell, make sure no one is coming down.” He commanded her absentmindedly before cursing to himself. Penny sighed overdramatically and slowly turned herself so she was facing the stairs. She didn’t really need to watch it, her enhanced hearing would let her know if someone was coming well before her eyes would.
“Stark? You there?” Bucky had a finger pressed to his ear, trying to contact Tony who was stationed a few miles away with Steve, Sam, and Nat.
“Roger. Go for Stark.” Tony’s chipper sarcasm flooded Penny’s mask as it came through the comms.
“We’re on sub-level four. None of the guys stationed here had access passes for level five.” Bucky began, his voice serious and mechanical.
“Alright, do you see a computer in the room with you?” Tony asked, his voice dripping with faux-helpfulness. Penny could practically see him rolling his eyes while he muttered about how horrible the education must have been in the forties.
“I tried your override codes, Stark. They don’t work.” Bucky shot back, a twitchiness starting to build in his movements. Guess he didn’t like confined spaces much. Penny couldn’t judge.
“And he won’t even let me try to figure it out,” Penny whined into the comms smiling when she heard Tony laugh quietly.
“Let the kid try if she wants to try.” The smile grew as Tony lightly scolded Bucky and Penny pumped her arms in the air in silent celebration, taunting Bucky as he groaned and rolled his eyes.
“Fine,” Bucky conceded, “But you’re gonna walk me through disabling this door in the meantime. I don’t have time to babysit.” Penny slid into the desk chair as soon as Bucky exited, her eyes hungry to feast on the code now laid out before her. Although, frankly, she was very well equipped for it, Spider-Girl didn’t get into much espionage. She rarely got the chance to put her computing knowledge to work outside of her bedroom.
“Yeah, you’re gonna eat your words when I figure this out before you do.” Penny chirped from behind the desk as Bucky started in on the door.
Penny had only made it through two walls of security when all her hair stood on end and the breath was sucked out of her. Her head shot up, towards the stairwell but it was silent.
“Well, which one is it? Is it wired internally or externally on the wall?” Tony questioned, impatient.
“I don’t know, it’s a square panel, it’s sticking out of the wall. How am I supposed to know if the wiring is internal or external?” Bucky shot back, equally as impatient. Penny continued to scan the room, frantically searching for the source of her ‘Penny-tingle’ (as Tony called it), but coming up with nothing.
“Okay, the panel is sticking out of the wall, that’s something. I assume there’s a hinge somewhere on the panel?” Tony questioned.
“Yep,” Bucky replied.
“Okay. Okay. Carefully, carefully , break the seal on the front face of the panel--but don’t break the hinge--and open it so you can see inside. If you feel any resistance, stop pulling. Could be rigged.” Tony instructed. Bucky’s hands moved towards the panel and Penny’s senses went completely haywire.
“Wait.” It shot out of her mouth before she could stop it. Bucky ignored her.
“Wait! I don’t think we should--” She continued, abandoning the desk and moving closer to Bucky at the door.
“Quiet, I need to focus,” Bucky ordered as his fingers broke the seal on the panel door and he started to raise it slowly. Penny groaned, frustrated, and instead took her attention to the room, desperately eyeing each crevice for some hidden clue.
“Something’s wrong, Mr. Stark, something’s wrong.” She gave up on Bucky, adopting instead to go over his head to the top.
“What do you mean, kid, what’s wrong?” Tony asked just as Bucky swung the panel open with a soft exclamation of success. A moment passed and nothing happened and Penny felt relief creep in. Maybe she had been wrong, maybe it was just a fluke.
“What’s wrong, Underoos?” Tony repeated, something like irritation in his voice.
“Nothing, nothing. My senses, I just thought--” Penny started but was cut off by the piercing and immediate wailing of a blaring siren now sounding throughout the compound.
“Shit,” Penny cursed.
“Fuck,” Bucky agreed.
“Stark, you hearing this?” Bucky yelled into the comms, fighting to be heard over the sirens.
“Yep, we’re hearing it. We’ll be to you in ten.” Tony’s voice had become tight and Penny heard the sound of his blasters firing up in the background. Penny transformed into Spider-Girl, her silliness melting away to reveal a battle-ready hero. Bucky turned to face her with the same serious stoicism on his face.
“Hear anything?” He asked quickly, gesturing to the stairwell. Penny paused, tilting her head, trying to hear anything beneath the droll of the sirens.
“Yes,” she whispered, finally finding her way through the mess of alarms.
“Yes,” she repeated, this time more confident. “Boots. Movement. There’s men up there but it doesn’t sound like they’re coming to us.” She closed her eyes again, focusing everything on deciphering the sounds that lay beneath a blanket of stone and wailing sirens.
“It sounds like they’re leaving.” She finally concluded, confused. She looked up at Bucky expectant like he could make some sense of this where Penny couldn’t.
“Leaving?” He just repeated back to her, the same confusion on his face. Before she could reply, her hair stood on edge again and a bellowing boom shook the ancient stone of the compound. Rubble and dust dislodged itself from the ceiling, raining down on them.
Before they had time to move, the explosion was followed by another, and another, each closer than the last. Penny’s senses were going wild, firing warning impulses through her nervous system with lightning speed.
“We need to get out of here. Now.” She barely got out before grabbing Bucky’s wrist and practically pulling him into the stairwell. The pair bounded up the stairs, only their panting and not-so-distant explosions accompanying them. Penny’s hand hovered over the doorknob when her body went as stiff as a board.
“What--” Bucky started but Penny was turning and shoving him down the stairs before he could finish. Then the world above him exploded into a fiery sea of orange and red before his world went dark.