Chapter 1
"(Y/N), I'm sorry to ask-"
"You always say you're sorry to ask. Then you swear at some random idiot and beat him up." Your fingers hovered in midair, pondering. "What do you want me to hack?"
"You know me too well. But of course, you're a Stark. That's to be expected." An unrepeatable cussing session soon followed, after much blasting sounds and Cap shouting, "Watch your language, Tony!" in the distance.
"Listen to what Cap says." You scold him, pressing one finger gently to the earpiece. "Is that shouting? Is Thor shouting again?"
"Um, yeah. I think someone hit him in the balls."
"The balls? Poor guy." A pause. "Then what do you want me to hack?"
"Pull up a file on this guy." A ping on your phone alerted that you had a message from Stark Dad <3.
You sent it to your computer in one simple move and pulled up a picture of this guy with a ski mask. He had long hair, and one of his arms was gleaming metal with a star painted near the shoulder. He seemed to be turning around.
Your fingers a blur on the keyboard, you quickly pulled up all references of him. "Um, he's apparently called the Winter Soldier. He's been spotted for over 30 years, yet he never seems to age or to become different. Ooh, look, there's a whole friggin' file about him! But I can't access it."
"What source does it belong to?" Prompted your father's voice. "Hack it."
Apparently, your very unfit father who was not very good at his parental duties.
"It says...." You leaned closer. "Am I reading this right? HYDRA. That's from the Greek myths, isn't it? The monster, cut off one head-"
"-two more grow back." Tony's voice sounded urgent yet sort of.... afraid. "(Y/N), baby girl, get out from there, okay?"
"I already hacked into it. It was easy, really, though. Took about a minute." You adjusted your screen. "Winter Soldier. He's been living since- is this even real? It says he's been through cryopreservation and several stages of full memory wipe."
"(Y/N)!" He sounded desperate. "Please, just get out! Delete all history, get out, leave no trace!"
"I won't, dad. That's one of the main rules of hacking."
"DID YOU GET OUT?" He shouted. The blasting in the background was louder.
You nodded, even though he couldn't see you. "Yeah, yeah, I did! Why is it so important anyway, though?"
On the other side, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god."
"What thank god?" You said, a little sour that you didn't get to read the rest. "Why?"
"Fry the hard drive. Wipe the software of its memory." He said. "That means shove off, chickenface!"
"Pardon?"
"Talking to someone else." You heard another rather large blast. "Come on, do as I say."
"I don't wanna lose any memory! I don't want to buy a new computer, too!"
"Come on, baby girl, I'll buy you a new one! Just do it!" He pleaded.
"Build me one yourself. Please, dad?"
"You already have three other computers."
"Cause I need all of them."
"Fine. Anything for my girl, though." He coyly put in. You just rolled your eyes and wiped the entire memory of the computer.
And for the fireworks.
You unplugged your computer and brought it to the windowsill. Grimacing a little, you held it out of the window and clicked your fingers. A small flame sparked between them, and you pressed your fingers to the metal, feeling it grow hot, and released a few sparks of electricity for good measure. The computer burst into flames and your arms began to ache with the pressure of holding it out like this-but you couldn't risk anything like last time, when you accidentally set your carpet and your bed on fire. And giving Avengers Tower an electrical problem.
"Did what you asked." You said grumpily, taking the charred remains of the computer and throwing it in the SCRAPS corner. "Happy?"
"We're coming home tomorrow." Tony answered. "Good work, baby girl."
"Take care of yourself." You replied. "Try to prevent Thor from killing anyone important. I'd hate to see them dead just because of a groin injury."
"Always this sass." He chuckled. "I love you."
"I love you too." You replied, and switched off your earpiece, setting it on the nightstand with a sigh.
You lay in bed and thought about the HYDRA thing you had seen. Why had Tony been so intent on getting no trace of you? Why had he insisted you fry the computer?
Most of all, who was the Winter Soldier?
You desperately tried to organize the thoughts in your head and was just about to go make coffee for yourself when a small chink caused you to jump lightly onto the balls of your feet. It had come from the next room over, which meant that the person, whoever it was, had either taken the lift or climbed up a few stories. Which wasn't all that impossible, considering Peter (whom you basically considered your little brother) and his spider-like abilities.
Not speaking and barely breathing, you grasped the swiss army knife you always had from the bedside table and flicked out the knife. You could hear a slight tiptoeing and froze, diving behind your desk as a figure approached the room.
Maybe it's another crazed fan looking for Thor's signatures again?
But no. As your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you could see he was a man with long dark hair and a ski mask-
Like the Winter Soldier.
You stifled a gasp and waited patiently for him to make his way over to the table so you could launch a surprise attack. You gripped your knife and as he drew nearer your muscles tensed up, no doubt getting ready to spring from your hiding spot.
You heard his footsteps freeze, an inch away from you, and you rolled, slashing at his legs, and came up on your feet. He gave a slight grunt of surprise as he fell, but quickly regained balance and threw a punch towards you. The arm that threw the punch was metal.
Definitely the Winter Soldier.
"You're the Winter Soldier, aren't you?" Ducking a hit. "Cryopreserved in ice."
He didn't reply, instead sidestepping the kick and grabbing your leg. You locked your legs around his midsection and flipped him, pulling away and rolling just in time to see him crash onto the ground. He stood up quickly though, and responded with a quick jab to your solar plexus you barely defeated. He grabbed your swinging arm and flipped you over his hip- you crashing into the table. You groaned slightly and backed up towards the wall, flicking on the light so his eyes would have trouble adjusting. While he was temporarily blinded, you smacked his side but he just absorbed it like it was nothing and grasped that wrist, and spun you around, gripping the other one so that both arms were pulled behind your back. You felt his knee between your shoulder blades and he deftly took out a syringe, inserting it into your neck.
"Get away from me, you evil devilish hippie!" You struggled but could feel yourself becoming drowsier, and your head hit the floor. The last thing you saw was the Winter Soldier's emotionless eyes examining you.