DECISIONS
I realized I couldn't bend anything while these cuffs were on me; must have been due to the endless blood tests or something,but they had their countermeasures alright,as far as I went.
I leaned back on the cold surface of the van,Steve across me,next to Sam,Tasha next to me. There were two agents in,their guns held up,their faces hidden inside helmets.
I sighed;
“Who was he Steve?”,i asked him,still leaned back.
He had a darkened expression on,one too perplexed to be read.
“James Barnes “,he said in a low,quiet voice. “Bucky. My..friend”
His gaze was fixed on the floor,his fists tightened; he said a friend but...
“Barnes as in Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes?”,i asked,my brows knitted together.
Steve nodded,slowly,his jaw still clenched.
“Steve..that's..not possible”,i noted,disbelief held in my voice.
I had taken my sweet time reading about the war. About SHIELD,about anything I thought I ought to know. I'd become an inhabitant of this planet for two good years now. I had to know certain things about it's history.
Barnes...Bucky,was a friend of Steve,this much was written alright. But he was also a dead man. A soldier whom lost his life on the field.
Being here,now,still looking like a twenty year old after seventy-so years?
“It was him”,he stated,his voice firm.
“Steve,you are one thing. But him?”
“Shouldn't he be like..dead?”,Sam asked.
“It was Zola”,he huffed. “Must be; Bucky's unit was captured back in '43. Zola much have experimented on him....he..”
“Hey. It's not your fault”,Tasha said lowly.
“Even when I had nothing,i had Bucky”,he admitted,still looking down.
I turned around to see Tasha; her chest had a bullet wound. She was bleeding.
“Fuck- Tasha!”,i exclaimed.
I couldn't heat my hands,i couldn't cauterize her wound. She'd bleed out like that..
Just then one of the agents pulled out an electric rod; for a moment we leaned back,but then he punched the other guy,then electrified him.
Pulling the helmet off,we saw Maria Hill,huffing.
“Motherfucker..”,i mumbled,looking at her baffled.
“Did you miss me Agent Pearse?”,she asked with a smile.
“Well,not in general but..glad to see you here,i guess”
“You guys making new friends?”,he looked at Sam.
She managed to get us to another van,taking us in order to transport us somewhere. She didn't really speak much,though she explained a bit more about those cuffs I had on.
“Countermeasures”,she said and I snorted.
“Yeah,thanks for that”,i exclaimed,sarcasm filling my tongue.
“Don't thank me Persephone”,she hummed, “I am not the one who cuffed you”
“No,just one of the many people helping build them in the first place,i imagine”
“Sorry”,she tried to sound considerate. “We can help you get rid of them once we arrive”
“Arrive where exactly?”,Sam asked her,suspiciously.
“Somewhere safe”
It was a rather remote place,hidden somewhere deep in a forest; we all kinda ran in,Tasha's condition only getting worst.
She shouted about her wound,someone approaching us,running our way- probably a doctor. Maria though said we had to see someone first.
She took us to a big,mostly empty room filled with drapes made out of silicone,for some reason.
Behind it was a bedridden Nick Fury,in flesh and blood.
“Really now?”,i huffed to myself.
“You were...dead”,Tasha whispered,though it was loud enough for us to hear.
“Yes,that was the point Romanoff”,he answered back.
“Pretty lively for a dead man,Fury”,i noted and he smiled to me,one rather undecipherable smile.
“Nice to see you,Pearse. Heard you made a grand exit at the Triskelion”
I sat down on a stool,Steve right next to me; my hands were hanging from my knees,still in cuffs,opposed to everyone else's now free ones.
The doctor was pressing Tasha's wound,now seated down as well.
“Really Fury? HYDRA? How the fuck did this happen on your watch?”,i asked,leaning back,my legs crossed.
“Thought I had people I could trust,Pearse. Turns out it wasn't like that. I think I payed for that mistake”,he pointed at himself,eyeing his bedridden body. “Big time”
I shook my head,unable to answer to him. Maria waved at me,a cue to stand up and follow her; she wore a helmet,black glass covering her face as she held a grindstone on hand.
“Real...really now?”,i snorted,my lips curved downwards.
“Those are prototypes”,she pointed at my cuffs. “Didn't exactly hand out keys for them Pearse; we gotta improvise”
I sighed and then pushed my hands,stretched out in front of me as I pulled my head back,trying to avoid the sprinkles from the friction;
She pushed the wheel through the cuffs,cutting them in half,though they were still around my wrists. She tried to cut them again,though this time the wheel was too close on my skin.
“Whoa-whoa,hold on,Hill- for fuck's sake dude”,i shouted at her,cuing her to stop;
She lifted her helmet after putting the wheel aside,eyeing me.
“I got this,thanks...Jeez..”,i huffed.
I could manifest my elements now,since the cuffs were cut; I touched one cuff around my wrist with my hand,it's temperature hot enough for the metallic material to slowly dissolve; I repeated this with my other hand and the cuffs both fell down,next to my feet.
We relocated,went to another room and sat down around a table.
Tasha was next to me,my thumb orange,a flame surrounding it.
“It's gonna hurt a little”,i warned her.
“Just do it Pers..”,she sighed,clenching her jaw.
I pressed her wound,cauterizing it. She flinched,though she didn't scream or say anything besides a low thank you.
Fury put a black briefcase on the table; opened it and we saw three chips inside.
“What are those?”,Sam asked.
“We need to breach the Helicarriers “ ,Fury explained, “replace their targeting blades with our own”
“What will they do?”,i spoke,my arms crossed. Steve was silent,studying Fury's every word.
“Once they reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized”
“Boom”,Fury kindly explained Hill's words,speaking in her part.
“They need to be all in place- all three of them,or else it won't work”
“What about the agents inside?”,Steve's question made Fury take in a deep breath.
“We need to assume they're HYDRA”
“And what if they're not?”,i butted in,my voice firm.
“Sometimes the end justifies the means,Pearse. You should know that better than anyone”,he noted to me,and I could only clench my jaw,turning my gaze away.
“You insert the server blades,bring down anyone willing to get in your way”,he spoke again,his hands tied together in front of him. “ And we can hope we get to save something out of it”
“Fury,SHIELD is gone”,Steve said,his voice hoarse.
“Not yet Captain”
“SHIELD and HYDRA are two sides of the same coin,Director”,i looked at him,my eyes shooting daggers. “Whether you like it or not”
“S'that right...”,he whispered. “I didn't know about Barnes”,he tried to explain himself,figuring out this was a matter we all were thinking about.
“Just one more secret to keep,wouldn't make much of a difference,right?”,Steve asked,his fist tightened.
Fury sighed,leaning back.
“I assume you all stand by him,right?”,he gave each one of us a look,his question answered without the use of words. “I won't be making the mistake of asking you,Pearse. Where Rogers goes,you follow”,he turned to me,a faint smile on his lips. “And,vice versa”,he whispered.
“Correct assumption”,Tasha said in a low voice,giving me a half smile.
“Fine”,he finally exclaimed. “Your call,Captain”