Burning

It didn’t take long for Clint to track down the cradle. As Steve and Bucky jogged the long bridge from the lab to the rest of the city, they got a call on the comms that it was in a trailer, being pulled by a semi.

The vehicle was easy to spot coming on the road below, and with a nod to each other of mutual agreement, the two old friends hopped over the guard wall and landed soundly on the trailer’s roof. A quick roll to absorb the impact, and Bucky was right back on his feet,

“Well that was convenient,” Bucky grumbled as he straightened and eased himself into a fighting stance. The trailer rocked slightly beneath him and the wind howled in his ears, but it wasn’t exactly his first time standing atop a moving vehicle. “View isn’t as good as from the Schnellzug though.”

When Steve didn’t respond, Bucky spun to look for his friend. All he saw were fingertips gripping the back edge of the trailer.

“Oh, come on Stevie. You’re embarrassing me,” he chuckled as he moved to the back of the trailer. His metal hand gripped Captain America’s forearm, helping the other man up.

With a grunt, Steve hauled himself onto the roof of the container and onto his feet. “Sorry to disappoint,” he replied with a huff. “What’s the Schne-“

The doors flew off the back of the trailer with an explosive bang, interrupting their conversation. The doors dragged along the asphalt, creating a terrible noise and orange sparks as they bounced along.

And then there was the monster itself.

Ultron levitated up and into view, touching down at the edge of the trailer. If one could attribute human emotions to a robot, Bucky would have said that Ultron seemed to be seething.

“Everything I do, every milestone I reach, you Avengers are there to sully it,” the thing snapped, it’s tinny voice laced with bitterness.

“As I said,” Steve responded, “sorry to disappoint.”

Ultron raised its hand and energy shot out of his fingers. On reflex, Bucky shielded his face with his metal hand, but Captain America was quick to use his shield to block the blast entirely.

“Is that new?” Bucky asked, stepping closer to his friend. “I don’t remember him doing that before.”

“Evolution,” Ultron replied, stepping closer. “Isn’t it a beautiful thing?”

Another blast came their way, and again both men were protected by Steve’s shield.

“We’re you going to ask what Schnellzug was?” Bucky growled, waiting out the energy blast. “The train? The one where I died?”

“Oh that,” Steve replied, his expression tight with concentration as he adjusted his shield to match the blast. “Well, try not to die this time.”

As soon as Ultron relented, Steve hurtled his shield towards the monster. Bucky hurried down the trailer to the rear end, sandwiching Ultron between them. Between Steve’s shield and Bucky’s punches, they were able to keep Ultron busy.

“See, in baseball,” Bucky said as he blocked the robot’s arm from coming down on his head, “they call this a pickle.”

Ultron growled in response. “Is that so? I call it annoying.”

He turned to take another swing at Bucky, batting Steve’s shield away with his other hand. The disk clattered to the roof of the trailer as Steve dove for it, catching it just before it slid off the edge. A metal foot came down hard on Steve’s back, and Bucky winced as his friend groaned in pain. He pushed himself forward, jumping up to grab the robot’s neck in a lock.

Captain America rolled out from under Ultron and pushed himself to his feet… just in time to see two of the Iron Legionnaires rising from the open back of the truck.

“Oh, give me a break,” the man sighed.

“Beep beep!” Natasha’s cheerful voice sounded in their earpieces, and Bucky twisted his neck to see the girl’s electric Harley Davidson coming up fast behind them.

“If you boys can keep them occupied, I can get to the cradle,” she said.

Bucky didn’t miss the way Steve rolled his eyes. “What do you think we’ve been doing?”

The Legionnaires were approaching, and Bucky’s real arm was starting to fatigue from holding tightly onto Ultron. Something was going to have to give.

When the two robots raised their hands to deliver a blast, the Winter Soldier put all his weight against Ultron, spinning the machine to take the brunt of the energy beams. He let go and fell back against the roof of the trailer next to his friend.

Clint took the moment to make a pass with the jet, spraying all three robots with bullets. It served as enough of a distraction to pull the two Legionnaires into the sky after Hawkeye, leaving Ultron for the super soldiers. And leaving Natasha with her requested opening.

Tasha pulled up behind the trailer and launched herself upward, disappearing inside. Bucky felt a wave of relief begin to wash over him, but was quickly pulled back to the here and now when Ultron delivered a swift kick to his side.

Bucky groaned, his body instinctively folding in on itself. Ultron raised his fingers to send out another energy blast, and Steve swept his shield upward at the creature’s abdomen, putting it off balance. The beams went wild, and Bucky rolled to try to escape them, but was closer to the trailer’s edge than he had initially calculated. His metal fingers grappled at the edge, but ultimately the Soldier fell into the street.

Springing to his feet on the asphalt, Bucky whirled to see the semi and trailer quickly retreating with his friend standing alone on the roof and his girlfriend inside. He clenched his feet and ran… in the opposite direction.

To the Black Widow’s Harley.

“Tasha, can I borrow your ride?” he asked into the comm while jerking the bike upright from where it lay on the street.

He could almost hear the smile in her voice as she playfully responded. “Mhm, but have her home by nine. And not a scratch.”

Bucky smirked and threw his leg over the machine. It sprung to life beneath him, whirring with electricity. A quick squeeze of the accelerator and he was off in pursuit.

“This thing sounds a little cheesy, but she sure can move,” he muttered into the comm, leaning back and forth, testing the bike’s response time.

“Well if she’s not good enough for you, you can-“ Natasha’s voice was suddenly cut off with a grunt.

“What happened?” Bucky demanded, still trying to catch up with the rest of his team.

Clint was the one who responded from his place in the sky. “The package is airborne. Cap and Ultron are on a train now.”

Bucky gritted his teeth, shaking his dark hair from his face. Okay, so he just needed to find the train.

“I’ve got a shot,” Clint continued, but was quickly cut off when the Black Widow said she was still inside the trailer.

Risking a glance upward, Bucky could just spot the flying container with the jet nearby. A knot of worry began to form in his stomach, but he pushed it down. All he could do was find Steve and Ultron and play his own part. The others would do theirs.

The train’s tracks curved off to the left, but Bucky took a shortcut through the streets, doing his best to make a b-line that would intercept the train and his friend rather than trying to catch up with it. The streets of Seoul were busy, and weaving through traffic was no small feat, but the Winter Soldier wasn’t exactly a bad driver, either.

It wasn’t long ‘til he found himself at the end of the rail line, with the green passenger train creeping closer in the distance. Bucky stopped the motorcycle, resting with a booted foot on the ground, and waited.

But then, like some sort of bizarre reverse meteor, something flew through the front windshield of the train and streaked into the air. Steve’s voice confirmed what Bucky already knew… Ultron had escaped.

“Driver’s down, train’s gonna jump the rails,” Steve continued through their comms.

Bucky swore, mind reeling. If the train didn’t stop at the end of the tracks, it would go hurtling through the city. He turned, briefly calculating its path, then started up the bike again.

But then Clint shouted from above that Nat was gone. Bucky jerked his head upward, blue eyes searching the sky. How was she gone?

He could just make out the figure of Ultron streaking away. His mouth went dry and a cold chill settled into his spine. Ultron had Natasha, and they were out of his reach.

The shrieking of metal on metal drew him back to the present, and Bucky swallowed down his fears. First, create a safe outcome. Then, they could figure out how to save the girl he loved.

Propelling the bike into action again, Bucky flew in front of the crashing train. He was screaming, waving his arm, doing all he could to get the many civilians out of the path of the barreling vehicle. Most jumped quickly and easily out of the way, while a few he had to physically push to the side.

A silver streak caught his eye, and Bucky realized he wasn’t the only one trying to save the innocent citizens of the city. Pietro was rushing around doing the same.

All at once, they came upon a dead end. The motorcycle’s wheels stopped with a squeal, and Bucky turned to see the quickly slowing train draw closer. Red sparks flew up from beneath it.

So. Wanda was there too.

Civilians safe, train grinding to a halt, Bucky abandoned his ride and searched for Pietro. He found him making his way to a stack of crates, lowering himself to use them as a seat, clearly as winded as Bucky also felt.

He approached the boy slowly, afraid of starling him into a retreat again. But Pietro simply glanced upward at his approach and back down to the ground.

“Pietro,” Bucky began, keeping his voice steady and earnest. “Thank you for the help.”

“Yeah, I just need a minute to rest,” the boy replied through heavy breaths.

Wanda approached from the train, casting a wary glance at the Winter Soldier before rushing to her brother.

Steve wasn’t far behind. He exited the train and moved to stand next to his friend, arms folded across his chest.

“You know, if you two had listened to this guy a little earlier,” he jabbed a thumb at Bucky, “then we could have avoided this mess.”

The twins’ eyes rose to the two men in unison. “You can hardly blame us, after what he did,” Wanda replied, squaring her shoulders in a show of confidence that secretly impressed Bucky.

But he was less than eager to get into another argument. “It was a long time ago. Let’s put the past behind us.”

His friend opened his mouth to reply, but Wanda beat him to it. “The cradle, did you get it?”

Steve nodded. “And Ultron got one of ours during the fight. Where would he have taken her?”

Pietro shook his head. “Ultron kept us in the dark. We don’t know.”

Bucky ran his hand through his hair and turned away in a sudden wave of fear and frustration.

“But she must be valuable, or he would have killed her outright,” Wanda was quick to interject. “There is still hope.”

The Winter Soldier curled his hands into fists at his sides, heart hammering in his chest. Still hope… and still time to fight.