Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Eight

A short while later, Steve and I enter Banner's lab just in time to see Stark zapping Banner in the side with a small electrical prong.

"Ow!" Banner exclaims, holding his side and giving Stark a look of concealed amusement.

Tony looks closely at his eyes. "Nothing?"

"Hey!" Steve shouts. "Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out," Stark replies before turning back to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demands, losing his patience.

"Funny things are," Stark answers.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve argues before turning to Banner. "No offense, Doc."

"No, it's alright," Banner assures. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man," Stark informs him. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve states, trying to get the two geniuses back on track.

"You think I'm not?" Stark asks. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"So, you think Fury's hiding something?" I ask.

"He's a spy," Stark states, pulling out a bag of blueberries from the desk. "He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too. Isn't it?"

Banner struggles to find words as Stark points at him. "Uh... I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Doctor?" Steve coaxes.

Banner pauses for a beat. "'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it," Steve confirms.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Banner continues, pointing to Stark, who offers him some of his blueberries. Banner takes a couple before continuing, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve questions. "That big, ugly..." Stark gives him a look, "...building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Banner informs us before turning back to Stark. "That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Stark brags. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner continues, nodding his head toward Stark. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Stark muses.

"I'm sorry. Did you say...?" Steve questions, taken by surprise.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," Stark explains. "In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." Stark turns to me. "Speaking of which, what exactly is your job here?"

I shrug. "I'm a founding member of SHIELD."

"Funny," Stark replies. "There's nothing in your SHIELD file apart from your military service record... So, why would SHIELD feel the need to hide the record of a founding member?"

I hesitate as I try to think of an excuse, and I notice the curious glance from Banner. Although he heard Loki's quip about my abilities, he doesn't bring it up, and I realize that he's not one to confront people about things that may be uncomfortable. I'm thankful for that.

Luckily, Steve comes to my rescue a second later, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

"Following's not really my style," Stark argues.

Steve smiles. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

"Of the people in this room," Stark says, a nerve hit, "which one is: A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?"

"Steve, they have a point..." I reason, trying to clear the air. "Something doesn't feel right about this whole situation."

Steve takes a moment to consider, looking each one of us in the eyes.

"Just find the Cube," he orders before exiting the lab.

I follow him out into the hallway, where he comes to an immediate stop, still torn by the possibility that SHIELD is keeping us in the dark about something.

"What are you thinking, Cap?" I ask.

"Come on," Steve answers, leading me toward the hull of the helicarrier.

Mustering up all his strength, Steve slides open the heavy iron door of Secure Storage 10-C. After checking that the coast is clear, we sneak into the warehouse to find that it is stacked full unassuming metal crates. Looking up, we see a second level, and Steve leaps high, grabbing the railing and hoisting himself onto the catwalk. He reaches down to offer me help, but I decline, using the nearby stacks as a stepladder to climb up onto the metal grating beside him.

We make our way through the stacks, checking every crate for anything suspicious. Toward the back of the room, I open the next crate to discover an array of HYDRA weapons, and their sudden appearance sends me into a blind panic. I shriek, sending a blue pulse through the room as I stumble backward, memories flooding my vision. The train raid, the HYDRA soldier wearing the metal suit and mask as he fires a blaster canon at us, the impact of the blast knocking Bucky out of the train where he fell to his death.

Steve rushes over. "Woah, woah! Hey! Hey! Y/n, you're safe! You're safe."

I take a few shaky breaths as I look around the room, my eyes finally focus on Steve. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Steve soothes, offering me his hand.

Slowly, I take it, and he lifts me to my feet before approaching the crate together.

My panic turns toanger. "What the hell are they doing with these?"