Winter's Redemption [winter soldier//Bucky Barnes AU]

Chapter Sixteen

BUCKY'S POV

I looked up in horror. Now I know what the black box on the map was.

It's a cage.

A tiger, twice the size of a normal tiger, sat behind the bars, growling loudly at me. It must've lost a limb at some point, because it's left back leg was metal- exactly like my arm. I looked over at the man, trying to keep my expression controlled, and he smiled widely at me.

"Meet Tigger. He was this compound's our first mutant," He stated proudly, and I looked back at the giant Bengal tiger. It's head and ears twitched at the faintest sound while it's eyes stayed trained intently on me.

"We figured if he was going to be this scary, the least we could do was have fun with his name." The man continued. He opened a box across from the cage and took out a huge chunk of meat, throwing it between the thick bars to the tiger like it was nothing. Tigger gulped it down it one bite. 

"What's it for?" I questioned.

"Helping us bring down the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., of course. The plan is to kill specific threats to Hydra. We might use a disease for that, or we could try this fella." He replied, pointing to the beast. I nodded, looking around briefly at the rest of the lower level before turning to him.

"I'll relay that to my commander," I told him, and he paused.

"Who's your commander?"

"That's classified." I stated, glaring. He bit his tongue sourly and nodded.

"Continue with your business. I've been given orders to keep looking." I finished.

He nodded stiffly after a moment of consideration and then reluctantly headed back up the ladder. Once the trapdoor shut, I pressed a button on Tony's custom earpiece, and began talking to the team.

"There's a mutant down here. A genetically altered tiger," I said. I could hear Steve curse under his breath. "They mutated it, and gave it a metal limb exactly like mine. If it's let out, this could be harder than expected. And I'm only able to examine a couple feet into the underground base. I don't really want to see what's behind all the closed doors," I muttered, feeling a little uneasy as I looked around. There was a short moment of silence before Steve replied.

"Alright. Well it's now or never." Steve said. "Bucky, let us know when it's best to enter."

"Got it. Let me get upstairs first." I told them, climbing the ladder. I tried to pull the latch for the trapdoor but cursed when it didn't budge.

"Fuck." I muttered, "I'm locked down here!"

"Ok, we'll head in now then. Just wait there," Steve said, and I replied with a short ok, turning and leaning against the wall to wait for them.

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STEVE'S POV

I threw my shield with all my strength and it it slammed into two of the soldiers on the edge of the clearing, their breath leaving them with a grunt of pain. They slumped over silently and I caught the shield as it rebounded back to me.

Nat and Tony took out the guards at the door as we crept past the initial line of Hydra's defense. The noise of her guns and his blasters however were quick to draw attention, and I heard shouting coming from both sides.

I stayed hidden in the trees as I threw my shield again. I hit two agents as they rushed out and caught the shield at it returned, wiping the blood from the paint as I prepared to launch it again. I watched Sam hover over the top of the building, shooting down nearly every agent who came streaming from the doors, and Tony blasted the ones that were coming out from the woods. Sarah stood behind me, clutching her gun tightly, but even from my position I could see her hands shaking from either fear or nervousness. She wasn't a high level agent- she hasn't seen this level of combat before, and I worried for both her physical and mental safety.

"You sure you want to help? I know you haven't done this before and we can handle things if you want to sit this one out," I told her, and she fired another shaky round before replying.

"I can to help," She mustered. I admired her courage, deciding not to fight her on this one. I used to be like her at one point, after all, and I knew how infuriating it was to not be given a chance. I nodded slowly.

"Ok. Follow me closely and I'll cover you. Once we get in there, though, you may not be able to follow me. Stick with Natasha if you lose me," I told her, and she nodded.

I ran across the field as fast as I could, dodging any bullets that came my way, and Sarah was surprisingly quick to follow. Natasha wasn't too far behind us.

"Ready? When we go in, all hell is gonna break loose." She reminded us. I tightened my grip on my shield and nodded.

"Cap, we're going to go in the back exit so we can try and hit them from both sides," Tony called over the earpiece. I looked up and saw him gesturing to Sam. I nodded and they flew off, headed towards the other side of the large compound.

Turning back around, I gave Sarah a reassuring grin and took a deep breath before kicking the doors open.

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