Who Am I? » [Stucky]

144. Fifty-Five

They were toured around corners, guided so they avoided other oncoming patrols and weaved down pongy paths. Eventually the water thinned and they were marched down a slimy dingy corridor with a sealed metal door at the end. The keypad blinked with a red light in the dark, requesting a pass code.

They all stopped, anticipating the assistance of their guide. The man did nothing, and idly stared at the door. Bucky pressed the keen needle-like point of his knife into the small of the man's back, twisting it like a screw and drilling it through his tabard and into his spine. "Put the code in or I'll wrench this blade in the whole way..." He threatened.

The others were genuinely startled at how flawlessly he could flow from charismatic to menacing. His voice could fluidly change from a harmonious Brooklyn lilt to a gravelly roar if he willed it to, and sometimes the drawl would have the essence of something Eastern European about it - ghosts of his past consuming him.

The man jolted forwards, instinctively lurching from the barbed tip and his sweaty fingers jabbed in the digits. The light on the keypad shone green and there was a rumble as the doors parted and dust was released from where the door ground against the brick, chaffing and eroding.

The interior was revealed and immediately the veritable army of Hydra agents stopped, staring at the group of people lingering at their front door.

"Isn't that Captain America?" One blabbered, jaw dropping.

"Yeah, Director, I don't think there's going to be any chance of a stealth mission..." Clint spoke into his earpiece.

Gunfire rained down on them in an instant. Bucky and Steve ducked in, charging forwards, both hiding behind Steve's shield. Sam and Tony followed up, covering their backs and firing over their heads as they moved in a group.

Skye, Clint and Natasha moved in, darting off down a corridor to the right and disappearing into the base.

Trip and May flanked them, ducking down and firing off shots. They worked in tandem, each taking a go at firing a shot before ducking in again and hiding behind one another.

The gunshots echoed through the spacious facility. It was a cavern carved out beneath the lake with technology and electricity installed into it. They entered into the central unit; it was a gaping high roofed room and they went in exposed, surrounded at every angle in the circular stage-like space. There were higher galleries, carved out of the lakebed, fenced off by metal bars and aided by metal wire walkways. Sharpshooters stood post at every balcony, a fire of artillery swarming down to kill them. Each gunshot sent a tinny prang through the cave-like space and bursts of metal pings rung out as bullets ricocheted off Steve's shield.

"Just like good old days huh?" Bucky managed to mumble above the orchestral apex of the sound of bullets fired in a blizzard at them.

"Yeah... Only we're missing the androids," Steve agreed, snickering and spluttering as they shot their way through the hordes of oncoming agents.

"Shut up about the god damn, androids!" Tony complained over the sound, firing rope-resembling beams of hot white repulsor rays over the heads of the others, taking out two or three oncoming men at a time; blasting blisteringly hot holes through their sternums and sending them scattered to the floor like pins in a bowling alley; tumbling into the men behind them and dragging them teetering to the floor too.

"Can you catch?" Steve turned to Bucky, firing inaccurately around the side of the blooming circular shield, managing to shoot down two men in total.

"Are we going to play ultimate Frisbee?" Bucky asked gleefully, smirking, the words were practically a codename for the smoothest stunt they had in their arsenal.