Guns and goons
“Who’s this and how do you have this number?” A gruff voice came, sounding bored and irritated at the same time.
“Hi, Nick, just the man I was looking for! Maybe this news has already reached you, but your toy soldiers are back at home and Steve and I went out shopping. And we already know where Schmidt is.”
Fury sighed. I could picture him rolling his good eye.
“I’m assuming that you don’t know yet. Which is good. You need us, we need you.”
“Why?” Came the gruff response, now sounding more tired and annoyed.
“Playing house got boring. We wanna go home. However, we realize two ain’t enough to end a war. We’re asking for backup.”
“Backup?”
“You heard that right. Cause Steve here is gonna be the Captain. He’s a lot better and more capable than those goons you’ve got. He’ll take charge of the mission. I’ll be his second. I served. I know what to do. So how many men you got?”
Steve smirked, mouthing ‘impressive’ to me. I imitated a hair flip. Well, it was kind of a hair flip. Maybe I do need a haircut…
“We’ll meet somewhere. Then we’ll talk.” Fury responded. He gave us an address and a time before promptly hanging up.
“I don’t think he likes me.” I said, a hint of a smile on my lips.
Steve shrugged, “I don’t think he likes anyone.”
~
Less than two hours later found Steve and I sitting in the back of an unmarked army truck with six other agents. Behind us were two more trucks, loaded with more guns and goons. SHIELD must think we’re gonna stumble onto some trouble.
“Still remember the plan?” Steve whispered to me.
I nodded.
We’d figured Fury wanted our information, but didn’t want us in harm’s way. We knew that the goons would take over and we’d be left sitting on our asses in the truck. That wasn’t going to happen. I needed to get to Johann first so I could get him to confess to stealing the money and framing me. Seemed like it was the quickest way home.
Steve figured that they’d leave one or two goons with us so we decided that plan B from this morning became our plan A.
After that, Steve would go in first, blasting through a backdoor that led into the warehouse. I would go around the other way, working my way through the building towards Steve while the SHIELD goons took out what we counted to be most of Schmidt’s followers.
The truck came to a halt and we climbed out.
“Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” I told Steve. Nerves were making its way into my stomach.
“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Steve smirked, his smile was watery. He took my hand and held it for a second before letting go.
All we had to do now was wait for the goons to split up and leave us.
Then we’d start our own mission.
~
“Sir, code black. SHIELD! What do we do?”
“Prepare our exit. Destruct all evidence of our work.” Schmidt instructed, calmly packing his things.
“But sir, it will all have been for nothing.” The professor sputtered.
“Destroy the evidence. Do it, now!” He bit out, his skin turning red with anger.
~
Steve breathed in and exhaled.
He had his gun in front of him, ready to turn the corner, when he was suddenly smashed into the wall, one, two, three times.
He hit his head and for a second things became blurry. He regained himself, taking down the aggressor, thankfully without having to use his gun, which would’ve betrayed his presence.
Just when he got ready to turn the corner again a dozen of Schmidt’s goons rounded it first. Even though Steve put up one hell of a fight, he wasn’t some super soldier who could take out that many people at once.
The goons dragged him through a dozen different rooms before they put him in front of Schmidt on his knees. Two goons stayed, keeping Steve on the ground, while the others left to head towards the distant sounds of gunfire, Steve recognized.
He hoped Bucky was alright.
“Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say you do it better than anyone. But there are limits to what even you can do, Captain, or did Fury tell you otherwise?" Schmidt quipped, “Running off without any backup. It isn’t a good plan, Captain.” Schmidt tutted, “It seems you have lost your touch. But then again, it seemed that way some years back, too. Didn’t it?” His smirk was evil.
Steve bit his tongue, fighting the flashback. Instead he snarked back, “Seems you haven’t learned either. I managed to find you, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I must compliment you on that. I had thought myself to be quite thorough with leaving no tracks. But since those two compromised situations, past and present, both had you as a major key, the smart move would be to remove you from the equation.” Schmidt said, pulling a gun out of his jacket and pointing it at Steve’s forehead.
“It would be smart.” Steve agreed, “But you’re not the only one to be smart, Schmidt.” Steve smirked, quickly pushing his head away from the gun, which fired at the same time the door blew off of its hinges. An explosion followed and soon I came blasting into the room with an automatic. I guess I hadn’t forgotten my army days just yet.
~
“Where are you taking me?” Schmidt inquired.
“You’ll see.” Steve bit out.