Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Fourteen

Steve and I crash through the second story window of the bank to find three Chitauri soldiers, one of them holding a beeping bomb, looking over the balcony at the floor below, where the trapped civilians are gathered.

Hearing our entry, the Chitauri turn to us, pointing their weapons, and Steve throws his shield at the bomber as we engage with the other two soldiers. We duck for cover behind a toppled desk as the Chitauri fire off a few blasts of energy, and Steve jumps over it, head locking one of the soldiers as I blast the other over the railing.

"Everyone! Clear out!" Steve shouts to the civilians as the third Chitauri attacks him from behind, ripping off his helmet.

The bomb begins to beep rapidly from where it landed on the floor, and I dive for it as one of the remaining Chitauri lobs it over the side of the balcony. Without thinking, I jump for it, and my fingers graze the side of the bomb as it escapes my reach.

However, to my surprise, my powers surround the device, and I throw my arm upward, launching the bomb to the ceiling as I fall to the floor below. I stretch my arms out wide as I collide with the ground, and the bomb detonates, but a blue wall of energy shields me and the civilians from the explosion. I look at my hands in amazement, the blue waves solid around my fingertips until the forcefield dissolves.

A few pairs of hands reach down to help me up, but I decline, hauling myself to my feet.

"Is anyone hurt?" I ask the group of astonished citizens.

The crowd murmurs as they look around, and a kindly man answers me, "No. All thanks to you."

I give the crowd a small smile. "Good. Let's get you folks outta here."

I lead the group through the lobby and out the front door, where a handful of police officers notice us and take charge, leading the civilians to safety. I see Steve climbing off the roof of a car, where he landed after being tossed out of the building by the explosion.

"Cap?" I ask. "You good?"

"Yeah," Steve confirms. "You?"

"I've been better," I joke.

We look around the destroyed city and I glance back at the civilians, catching the gaze of a waitress as she's rushed to safety, a thankful look in her eye.

After a few more quick breaths, Steve and I rush back into the action, soon joined by Thor as we take on more and more Chitauri. Thor throws Mjolnir as Steve tosses his shield, and it ricochets off a handful of enemies before returning to his hand. At the same time, I aim and fire a handful of blasts at the stragglers, keeping the Chitauri at a distance.

Mjolnir returns to Thor's hand as Steve turns to throw his shield, but he's caught in the stomach by a blast of energy, striking him down. I blast the nearby Chitauri as Thor runs over to a broken car, swinging his hammer and sending the car flying, crushing more Chitauri as it flips over and over.

Thor offers his hand to help Steve up. "You ready for another bout?"

"What?" Steve asks, accepting the offered hand. "Are you gettin' sleepy?"

Thor gives him an amused side-eye, although the exhaustion is clear on his face, and I move in to check Steve's injury.

"The blast penetrated your suit, but the wound is superficial," I tell him, quickly putting my fist up beside my head and projecting another forcefield behind me as a Chitauri energy blast connects with it. I blast the Chitauri before turning back to Steve. "There isn't much that I can do for it right now anyway, so keep an eye on it and let me know if it gets any worse."

Thor's brows furrow. "You're a healer?"

"I was," I correct, turning to get back into the fight. "Once upon a time."

Suddenly, Natasha's voice appears in our ears. "I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve orders.

"No, wait!" Tony pleads through the communicators.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve reminds him.

"I got a nuke coming in," Tony informs us. "It's gonna blow in less than a minute... And I know just where to put it."

Far up above, Tony flies by, barely scraping past a skyscraper as he angles the missile towards the wormhole.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?" Steve asks.

Tony doesn't answer, and a moment later he and the missile disappear through the portal. All around us, the Chitauri soldiers and leviathans collapse to the ground, and we look up at the wormhole, unsure if Tony will make it back. From where I stand, I see the supernova coming toward the other end of the portal, and Thor sullenly nods to Steve.

Steve puts a hand to his earpiece. "Close it."

Without hesitation, the energy beam from the top of Stark Tower cuts off, and the wormhole quickly closes, but a small figure manages to slip through before the wall of flame.

"Son of a gun," Steve breathes, but his smile quickly fades as we realize that something is wrong.

Unmoving, Tony Stark plummets toward Earth, falling, and falling, and falling.

"He's not slowing down," Thor exclaims, swinging Mjolnir in preparation to fly up.

Before he can, the Hulk leaps out of nowhere, snagging Tony out of the air and sliding down the side of a building before crashing to the ground. The Hulk throws Tony off him as we run over, and Thor rips off Tony's mask. We see that his eyes are closed.

"Let the healer through," Thor orders the others as I drop to my knees beside Tony, leaning over him to listen for breathing.

I don't hear anything, and I begin to pry at the armour. "I need to get this off. I need to start CPR."

The Hulk yells in fury as Steve and Thor crouch down to help me, and the noise startles Tony awake.

"What the hell?" Tony asks. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?"

We all breathe a sigh of relief, and the Hulk lets out a victorious bellow.

"We won," Steve informs Tony, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"Alright," Tony breathes, leaning back down on the ground. "Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Thor looks up at Stark Tower. "We're not finished yet."

Tony catches his meaning. "...And then shawarma after."

Up in the Stark penthouse, Loki crawls onto the steps leading up to a platform, covered in dust and looking a little worse for wear. Sensing someone behind him, he turns to see our entire time staring him down, weapons at the ready and pissed off.

"If it's all the same to you," Loki requests, turning to sit on the stair, "I'll have that drink now."