The Break of Winter ▸B. Barnes

Chapter 11

"Guys, I'd love to keep this up, but I only have one job here today and I gotta impress Mr. Stark, so I'm really sorry-" He rambles as he moves to shoot his webs again. Before they reach us, Sam's little gadget he calls 'red wing' flies in front of them causing the boy to go flying out the window.

"Seriously?" I say, lifting my head to look at Sam.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Bucky asks.

"I hate both of you." Sam huffs.
•••
       After we managed to escape the webs, we manage to find the rest of our group, who were making their way towards the Quinjet. "That stuff was seriously gross," I say to Bucky and Sam as we fall in with the rest of the team. However, a bright laser-like beam draws a line in front of us, causing me to throw my arms out in front of Bucky and Steve like a mom brings us to an abrupt stop. I look up and see that the beam came from some weird flying... man? Robot? I don't know what he is.

"Captain Rogers," The thing says. "I know you believe what you're doing is right. But for the collective good, you must surrender now." As he speaks, the rest of Stark's team assembles around him.

"What do we do, Cap?" Sam asks.

"We fight,"  Steve replies, beginning to walk towards the other team with all of us following behind.

"This is gonna end well," I sigh sarcastically. Once we reach the line that had been burned into the ground between us, we break into a run. Each of us matched against someone. Cap took Stark, I took Black Panther, Clint took Black Widow, Sam took Rhodey, and so on. The panther and I exchanged punches, most of them getting blocked. I wrapped my legs around his neck and pulled myself up onto his shoulders but after a I landed a few punches he was able to get me off.

"I don't even know who your father is," I say as I wrap my metal hand around the panther's throat. "So I definitely didn't kill him."

"Then why did you run?" The question makes me loosen my grip. He takes the opportunity to throw a punch. I try to return it, but he catches it. He twists my arm back and uses the momentum to kick me, which sends me flying backwards into a crate. He extends his claws and reaches for my throat. Great I'm going to die at the hands of a man dressed up as a cat.

"I ran, because this is exactly how you confronted me about it. You never gave me a chance to even try to explain myself," I manage to get out.

       Just when I think it's over, a red glow covers his hand. I glance over to see Wanda. She uses her powers to send the Black Panther flying backwards.

        I lean my head back against the crate and see the spider boy flying over my head towards Steve. "That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all," The boy says regarding Steve's shield.

"Look kid, there's a lot going on here that you don't understand," Steve tries to reason.

"Mr. Stark said you'd say that. Wow." He says and shoots webs at Steve's feet. His legs always were his weak spot. His shield didn't cover them, so they were vulnerable. The boy kicks Steve's shield as he used his webs to pull him towards him, which threw Steve into a wall. I jumped up to help. "He also said to go for your legs."

"They always were your weakness, Stevie," I add. I went to grab his shield for him, but the boy used his webs to grab both of my arms. Once I figured out that I couldn't break the webs, I pulled my arms forward with all of my strength, which flung the boy forward. He quickly recovered and tried using his webs to take Steve's shield, which resulted in him back on the ground. Finally, he shot a web and pulled himself up onto a platform.

"Did Stark tell you anything else?" Steve asked him.

"That you're wrong, but you think you're right. And that makes you dangerous," He replied. He swung down and tried to kick Steve, but he used his shield to deflect the boy into one of the beams holding up the platform he had been standing on.

"Guess he had a point," Steve mumbles. Then, he threw his shield at the other beam, causing the whole thing to collapse. Before he was crushed, the boy caught the piece of the platform above him. He was stuck there because if he moved he would be crushed. "You've got heart kid. Where you from?" Steve asked.

"Queens," He grunts. I look at Steve and smile softly.

"Brooklyn," I say for the both of us before running off. Steve and I end up meeting up with Bucky, temporarily out of the line of fire. "We gotta go," I say to both of them. "That guy's probably in Siberia by now."

"We gotta draw out the flyers," Steve says. "I'll take Vision, you two get to the jet."

"No!" Sam calls through the coms. "You get to the jet, all three of you. The rest of us aren't getting out of here."

"As much as I hate to say it," Clint chimes in. "If we're going to win this one, some of us may have to lose it."

"This isn't the real fight, Steve," Sam adds.

"All right, Sam," Steve caves. "What's the plan?"

"We need a diversion, something big," He replies.

"I got something kinda big," Scott speaks up. "But I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me." I look at Steve and Bucky with confusion.

"He's going to tear himself in half?" I ask in shock.

"You sure about this, Scott?" Bucky asks.

"I do this all the time," He replies. "I mean once, in a lab. Then I passed out. I'm the boss, I'm the boss, I'm the boss..." He begins chanting. I look at the two boys with a mixture of doubt and concern. Suddenly, the once ant-sized man was know a giant.

"Hey guys, I don't know for sure," I say. "But I think that might be the signal." The three of us start sprinting towards the quinjet.

"Way to go, tic tac!" Sam calls out.

        Just as we were about to reach the hangar, the tower next to it begins to fall. Luckily, Wanda caught it and held it up just long enough for the three of us to get through. We managed to get through right before the rubble came crashing down. Just when we thought we were clear, we were faced with Natasha. "You're not gonna stop," She says as more of a statement than a question.

"You know we can't," Steve replies.

"I'm gonna regret this," she sighs. She raises her wrist and just as I prepared to fight her, she shot someone behind us. I turn to see that she had shot the Black Panther, who was now on his knees surrounded by electricity. "Go." We nod a thanks before boarding the jet. Steve sits in the pilot seat and Bucky and I sit behind him. He takes off, leaving the Black Panther and Natasha behind.

"Does anyone have any orange slices?" Scott randomly says through the coms.

"Sorry, Scott. I'm fresh out," I roll my eyes.

"Hey, Steve. We got company," Bucky says. Sure enough, Stark and Rhodey were close behind us. However, Rhodey got shot down and Stark retreated to help him, leaving us in the clear.