One Last Matter to Take Care of
Tony finished inserting the last of the microchips then stepped over the bodies of the guards as he made his way back through the hole he had blasted into the observation to get in in the first place.
"JARVIS, any word how the rest of the team are doing," Tony asked as he soared up and casually took out a plane that had been gunning for him.
"Captain Rogers and Sergenant Barnes encountered a slight problem when one of the hydra operatives tried using a control phrase on Sergenant Barnes. While the triggers used were not effective the incident shook Sergenant Barnes confidence," Jarvis reported with a hint of concern in his voice.
Tony winced at the imagery that brought up but was glad that Steve had been there to stop Hydra from capturing Bucky again.
"Sir, may I suggest that you move to the second helicarrier as I believe Captain Rogers and Sergenant Barnes are planning on jumping into the river before the helicarriers destroy each other," JARVIS informed him dryly and Tony cursed those idiots roundly as he moved quickly.
"JARVIS patch me through to those two idiots," Tony groused as he caught sight of the two super soldiers who were obivously about to jump.
"Hey, I know it may have been a bit before your time but we now have this thing called a comm, you can call for...oh, I don't know a lift down to the ground, instead of jumping from an aircraft hundreds of feet up in the air into a freezing cold river," Tony snarked as he hovered in front of the two men and to emphasize his point he crossed his arms and tried his best to project his disapproval despite having the mask still down. The gesture lost some of its impact though when a gust of wind over blanced him and he had to quickly use the hand repulsors to keep himself from going into a dive.
Bucky at least had the decency to look a little guilty but Steve, the not so little shit, simply seemed puzzled.
"Tony, we have made this kind of dive before and besides we couldn't take you away from where you were needed," Steve told him but didn't protest as Tony threw each man a cable that he took out from a compartment in the suit. The cables were attached securely to the suit and within moments Tony was flying both super-soldiers down to the ground.
"What about Natasha," Steve called just as a shape flashed passed them and then turned to face them. Tony actually pulled up as he blinked stupidly at Natasha hanging from beneath a bewinged Sam Wilson. Natasha merely cocked an eyebrow at her stunned team mates before shouting up at Wilson "Do you think you could land us near where the SHIELD agents are still fighting with Hydra?"
"Can do," Wilson answered with a smile and Tony watched still in shock as the man swooped away toward where the fighting was still going strong.
"What was that," he asked plantively but neither of his passengers seemed to know either and with a mental shrug Tony followed the winged figure. From behind him Tony heard the sounds of multiple explosions going off and turned just in time to see the helicarriers going up in a blaze of glory.
"Now that is a pretty sight," Tony said happily and from under him he noted the pleased smiles that the two super soldiers exchanged.
"Well, Tony I think we have a bit more cleanup to do," Steve called with a grin and Tony couldn't help but laugh as he swung back around toward where the fighting was still strong. Hydra had made a big mistake when they decided to challenge the Avengers.
Steve dropped lightly down to the ground well behind the barrier that the SHIELD agents were manning and felt the ground jump slightly as Bucky landed beside him. Glancing to his best friend he winced internally as he saw the blank way Bucky was starring back at him, his friend having retreated behind his Winter Soldier training after the Hydra scientist had tried to turn him against them with a set of trigger words he had read from a book.
The muscles of his jaw clenched as he remembered the absolute fear that had flooded Bucky's eyes as he had realized what the man had been trying to do and then he hadn't remembered much of anything. Bucky had had to pull him off the man's body and his fists still shook with the desire to hurt the man, to make sure that neither he nor anyone else could hurt Bucky again. It had been Bucky who had picked up the book, his hands trembling as he held it before he had passed it to Steve. Steve had been dumbfounded at the trust being shown to him and had wanted to refuse, to give Bucky back this piece of himself somehow, but when he looked into Bucky's eyes and saw the trust and need there he had simply nodded, tucking the book into an inner pocket of his uniform. The book would help them make sure that there were no more lingering triggers for Bucky.
Pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind he scanned the area and blinked once in surprise as he noted the number of Hydra agents littering the ground with arrows embedded in their bodies. He frowned briefly as he realized that Wilson had not been the only one who had followed them. He really wanted to order Hawkeye back to the manor so that he could be there in case Matt woke up but he had to admit that Hawkeye certainly had come in handy in this fight. Without his help the Hydra agents might have been able to push the SHIELD agents back further and launch enough planes to have seriously hindered them.
Fury turned to them as they jogged up to him raising an eyebrow in question, obviously wondeirng if they had succeeded, but at that moment the sound of multiple explosions reached them and they watched with satisfaction as fire bloomed along the sides of the helicarriers.
"I see you succeeded. We are wrapping up here," Fury told them "Reinforcements just arrived from off-site and we are slowly pushing the Hydra agents back."
Steve nodded then froze as he heard a faint whistling before he caught something small moving fast out of the corner of his eye and then an arrow was embedding into a car they had been using as cover, a small capsule secured to it. Bucky scowled at the arrow before reaching forward and pulling the arrow free with a wrenching sound. He handed the arrow to Steve before lifting a hand deliberately into the air and raising his middle finger toward the direction the arrow had come from, moments later another arrow bloomed where the first had hit and Bucky pulled it out again. Bucky rolled his eyes as he saw the smiley face with the tongue sticking out scrawled on the arrow shaft but Steve saw the way that his mouth quirked up in a smile and Steve repressed his own smile as he clicked open the capsule to find a note.
'Hydra agents are up to something to your west, near main building. Outside my range. Second group is moving heavy equipment by the boat docks. Moving position to see what they are up to. Ones by the main building are yours.' Hawkeye's messy scrawl informed him and Steve immediately scowled as he searched the area around where the note came from hoping to spot the archer and stop Hawkeye from going without backup.
"Captain," Fury asked and Steve handed him the note.
"I can send a team to back him up when the reinforcements arrive but they are still ten minutes out," Fury told them grimly as he handed the note back to Steve.
Steve stared down at the note pensively before finally shaking his head.
"No," Steve told them "He sounds like he is going in just to observe and even your best team would draw to much attention. I think we should send Natasha instead. She is the best on the team at stealth and can radio us if anything goes wrong."
He wasn't completely happy about the decision but he didn't want to split their forces and risk them being overwhelmed so it was better to allow Natasha and Clint to scout out the Hydra agents at the dock and radio them if they were needed to stop the traitors. He caught Natasha's eye and saw her give a small nod before she was moving away into the shadows. He shook his head with a faint smile as he lost sight of her and was glad that he had people he could trust to help him. Meeting Sam's eyes he motioned him forward before grilling him on what he was capable of in the flight suit so that he could plan the best course of attack.