It took about an hour to reach the warehouse at Port of NY-NJ. Sam drove in first to the parking lot of the warehouse with Bucky following closely behind. The parking lot was empty, but then they saw two men wearing all black and black ski masks standing in front of the large entrance to the warehouse. The door of the warehouse was opened automatically and the two men beckoned Bucky and Sam to drive inside.
The warehouse was big, big enough to park several buses inside. It was empty save for two vans parked across from the entrance. Bucky noticed one of the vans was the one where the Flag Smashers took Adriana in. The vans were parked next to each other. Sam and Bucky parked their vans in front of the two vans next to each other.
"Should we get out now?" Bucky asked Sam through his ear piece.
"Wait." Sam answered.
The door of one of the Flag Smashers' vans opened. A large caucasian man who seemed to be in his 40s got out of the van. He had short grey hair and beard. His body was well built. Two other men got out of the van. Both equally big and burly. But they had ski masks on so Bucky didn't know what they looked like. They flanked the first man and walked towards Sam and Bucky's vans.
"Let's go." Sam said to Bucky.
Sam and Bucky got out of their vans and walked to the man and his entourage. They stopped in the center of the area between both vans and stood across from each other.
"Welcome Sam, Bucky. Looks like you two heeded my request." The man said with a thick Russian accent, referring to his request of coming alone.
"Where are they?" Bucky asked him directly.
"Not to worry Bucky, they're safe. What about my people? Where are they?" The man asked.
"Safe behind us." Bucky answered.
"We've heeded your request, now let our girlfriends go." Sam demanded.
"Not so fast. First, release our men then we will release your girlfriends." The man said.
"No, you release our girlfriends first." Sam argued.
"Tsk..tsk.. what makes you think you can order me around? You don't have leverage. WE have all the leverage here." The man said, getting a little annoyed.
"Are you sure about that?" Bucky challenged him.
"We've put a chemical bomb in these vans." Bucky said, pointing to the vans behind them.
"If you don't release our girlfriends first, we will detonate it and it will release poisonous gas inside the van which will kill your men in 30 seconds." Bucky said coldly. He picked a small device from his pocket. It was a detonator.
The man looked surprised and visibly upset, but then he smoothed his features and said.
"How do I know you're not just bluffing."
"You don't. You could risk it if you don't release our girlfriends now!" Bucky threatened. He put his hand up and put his thumb on the trigger of the detonator.
"Look who's the villain now." the man said, giving Bucky and Sam a devilish smile.
"Don't play that game with us. It's not gonna work." Bucky responded.
"What game?" The man asked, feigning innocence.
"The whole psychological mind games. You were the ones who blew up a building and killed innocent people. You were the ones who kidnapped our girlfriends. You were the ones who robbed food and medicine from the GRC meant for refugees. You are the villains here."
Bucky said, feeling annoyed.
"Yes, we did all that. But don't you know we also gave those robbed food and medicine to those who actually needed them? Those food and medicine had been sitting around in the GRC warehouse for months while some of us were starving and dying! You think we are the villains? No.. we're heroes! We gave power back to those who didn't have it. The people!" The man argued back passionately, leaving Bucky and Sam speechless.
"Look.. Alexei.. right? That's your name?" Sam said slowly.
"How do you know my name?" The man asked, turning his attention to Sam.
"One of your men told us." Sam said.
The man cursed in Russian.
"Look.. we know you continued Karli Morgentheau's movement because you want to help other people. But robbing, violence, kidnapping, recruiting super soldiers? That's just wrong. There are other ways to help. And other ways to make your voices heard." Sam said, trying to reason with Alexei.
Alexei stared at Sam, studying him.
"After Karli died and everyone within her group died, we had to starve for months. We've asked help from the GRC and they always say, don't worry, we'll send the food to you next week. Well weeks turned into months and still the food never came. We had to get by with scraps. We were left to die. I had to do something." Alexei explained.
"We can help, Alexei. I will contact the head of the GRC to make sure something like this will not happen again." Sam said.
Alexei tilted his head and stared at Sam.
"No.. we already had help. God sent an angel from a place we didn't know existed. We're fine now. We just need our men back so we can continue the movement." Alexei explained.
Sam looked dumbfounded.
"Who was it that gave you help?"
Sam asked.
Bucky felt he knew the answers. The Wakandans.
"It's not important. We have now joined forces and the world will soon know of our alliance." Alexei responded.
"Now enough of this talk. Release our men now or we will kill them!"
Alexei threatened.
Suddenly two men appeared from behind the Flag Smashers' vans. They dragged Adriana and Leila out. Their hands were tied back and their mouths gagged. The two men holding Adriana and Leila pulled out revolvers from their waists and put them on the girls' foreheads. Adriana looked at Bucky with fear in her eyes, he could see tears in them. His heart broke for her.
"Don't you dare.." Bucky threatened. He put the detonator for the chemical bomb up and put his thumb on the trigger.
"If you kill our men, they will die. Give that up and release our men now!" Alexei threatened.
For several moments nobody moved or said anything. The tension was palpable and the silence deafening.
"Now!" Sam suddenly yelled.
The two men holding Adriana and Leila fell down like something or someone was hitting them square on the jaw. Their revolvers fell to the ground. They slowly stood up again and were met by Rhodey and Riri who suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere and fought them. They had been shrunk to the size of an ant using technology from Hank Pym. And they had been hiding inside Sam and Bucky's pockets waiting for the right time to come out.
Seeing what happened, the two men flanking Alexei started to fight Bucky and Sam. Alexei also fought them. Bucky fought both Alexei and one of his men, throwing punches and kicks on both of them. But they were super soldiers like himself, so they put up a good fight.
Meanwhile there were two other Flag Smashers' members not joining the fight yet. They were guarding the entrance. Upon seeing the fight that broke off they went to Bucky and Sam's vans and opened the back door, intending to release their fellow members. But when they opened them instead of finding their fellow members, Clint, Bruce, Kate and Kamala came out charging and took them by surprise. The Flag Smashers members in the van were all unconscious, having been injected with tranquilizers by Bruce several moments before Sam had yelled their cue. Clint, Bruce, Kate and Kamala had also been shrunk and had waited in the van for the right time to come out. Clint and Kate fought one man while Bruce and Kamala fought the other one.
On the other side of the warehouse, Adriana and Leila were trying to help each other out from the ties on their hands and gags on their mouths. They had run to the side, away from the fight once their guards were hit by Rhodey and Riri. After a while they were finally free from the gags and ties.
"Are you okay?" Adriana asked Leila.
"Yeah yeah..I'm fine. You?" Leila asked Adriana.
"I'm fine. I gotta go and help them." Adriana said, looking at the scene of the fights in front of her.
Riri and Rhodey had successfully beat the men they were fighting. The men were unconscious lying on the ground.
Bruce, Clint, Kate and Kamala had also successfully beat the two men. They were also lying on the ground unconscious.
Alexei and the two men flanking him were also down. Sam and Bucky had successfully beat them.
"I don't think they need help." Leila said.
"Oh thank God." Adriana said.
After successfully punching Alexei to the ground making him unconscious, Bucky looked around trying to find Adriana. He found her standing with Leila on the side of the warehouse. She seemed fine thankfully. Bucky breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly ran to her and hugged her tight.
"Are you okay?" He asked Adriana, putting his hands to the sides of her face, studying them. He rubbed his thumb on the bruise on her forehead as if he could erase it somehow.
"Yeah, I'm fine Bucky. Are you okay?" She asked back, her hands on the sides of his face. There were some bruises on his eyebrow and lips, but other than that he was fine.
"I'm fine Adriana. I'm..sorry..I'm so sorry about everything." He said, remembering what happened the last time they were together. He started to sob.
"Shhh.. it's okay Bucky." She said, hugging him tight.
Suddenly she turned him around so that they switched sides. Bucky heard the sound of gunshots and he realized it too late. Adriana was shot on the back multiple times by Alexei who had gained consciussness. She had sacrificed herself to save him.
"No!" Bucky yelled in anguish.
He held Adriana's limp form in his hands, feeling his world shattered to a million pieces. He went down and laid her on his lap. Her eyes were closed, blood gushing from her back. He checked her pulse and couldn't feel it.
"No..no..no.. Adriana.. don't do this to me..please..nooo..!" Bucky screamed in anguish.