Chapter 1
It's been a week since Steve or any other member of the team was sent on a mission. Everyone was preoccupied; first on missions to find the Winter Soldier, and then on helping him settle in the tower and while Bruce and Tony were occupied with the deprogramming. Finally, Bucky was settling in the tower at a good rate, Sam the in-built therapist of the Avengers was gladly helping Bucky with his recovery. So, it was time to get back on the whole enemy-fighting business. SHIELD had the mission ready, supposedly one of the simpler one’s. Ambush the site save the hostages and equipment and walk out. But it wasn’t always that simple where Steve and HYDRA were involved. The warehouse was large, Steve had gone through the blueprints in the Quinjet where he was de-briefing the team and the agents. The warehouse had 3 main entrances and Steve along with Sam and Nat went through the main one. Everything was eerily quiet as if the people there already knew what was about to happen. Nat went forward opening rooms on the ground floor, while Sam went upwards and Steve moved towards the basement. All of a sudden there was a commotion on the coms and all the channels linking the agents with Steve went dead. Steve’s instincts were screaming at him to go back and check on his team when he heard something towards the deeper end of the basement. He kept on calling out names on the coms but didn’t get a response but he trusted Nat and Sam to get the job done and look after themselves so he kept on moving towards the deeper end. Suddenly there was a loud buzz sound and cracks started to appear on the walls. The lights buzzed and crackle and suddenly everything was dark. Steve knew something wasn’t right, there was no explosion to merit the cracks nor did the pillars upholding the building moved. Looking around he saw a few green lights coming from the end of the basement. Moving slowly but with sure feet, the shield held high Steve advanced in the room and he threw open the door with a kick to its pivot. As soon as the door opened, he knew he had miscalculated everything. Bullets flew all around the room aiming towards him and the shield could and his suit could only give only so much of a protection in front of more than a dozen armed Hydra goons. All it takes is half a minute and then all Steve sees is black.
“Sir you are needed at the landing are immediately”, came JARVIS voice over the loud metallic music in Tony’s workshop.
“Is everything alright J?”
“Not exactly sir, Agent Romanoff and the Falcon just landed from the Quinjet and they're both sustaining injuries.”
“Alright J, inform Bruce I’m going up.”
Nat was lying on the couch in the common area while Sam was nursing a broken arm and impressive scratches all over his arm and torso that was showing through his suit.
But Tony suddenly realized something was missing. More like someone.
Steve. Steve.
“C’mon guys move towards medical y’all are looking like shit, and I’m really trying not to lose it but where the hell is Steve?”