( captain america: civil war )
★
"OKAY, TAKE A left right... now."
Chloe, her white hood up, followed her cousin's directions to find the people who were taken― kidnapped?― by the government. Her eyes were glued to the floor, avoiding all questioning eyes.
The Assassin avoided the cameras, finding their blind spot or just dodging them in general. She really didn't need to hide governmental bodies in closets like the last time she snuck into a government base.
Long story.
Turn after turn led her to memorize the layout of the building. Eventually, she found the room where Sam's and Steve's trackers led her to. It was a big room, with screens towards the front of it and a conference center in the middle. She saw Sam, Steve, and Natasha, yet none seemed to notice her yet. Nobody noticed her presence, actually.
The joys of Assassin training.
She tapped her earpiece, whispering to avoid attention. "I'm here. Did you install the buzzer to the trackers?"
She heard Alex trying on a keyboard. "Your lack of faith in me is astounding sometimes."
She rolled her eyes, scanning the room for possible danger, her back straight. "Just do it, please."
Chloe saw as Steve and Sam flinched slightly, not enough to draw attention. Steve was in the conference room with a man, Tony Stark, and Sam, who was standing near the monitors. They both scanned the room from different viewpoints, both landing on a quiet Assassin who stood by the doorway. As Sam approached her, she nodded to Steve, who looked unable to leave.
"Glad you came," Sam said, leading her over to the monitors. "Was that you, with the buzzer?"
The Assassin smirked, nodding. "Had to get your attention somehow."
She looked over the screens, her eyes finding the one with Bucky. "How's he holding up?"
"Don't know. Haven't been able to talk since the whole car chase." Sam said, shrugging. "Police put him in that holding cell, loaded him in a separate car."
"Sounds like they think he's an animal," Chloe muttered, disapproval lacing her voice. "Who was the cat dude?"
"T'Challa, the prince of―"
"―Wakanda?" she cut him off, her gaze settling on the sitting man. "I've heard of him. Saved his life, once."
Sam smiled, glancing down at her. "Does he know that?"
"Nope."
★
Steve and Tony looked at each other, silently daring the other to speak.
Tony nodded his head to the window. "Who's your hooded friend?"
Steve glanced at Chloe, seeing how rigid her body was. He could understand after a year of knowing her. She was in an unknown place surrounded by strangers, how could she not be on edge?
Steve shook his head. "It's not my secret to tell."
"Because," Tony said, ignoring him, "I snagged a picture a few days back, ran her through facial recognition, and I found nothing. Nothing at all. It's like she doesn't even exist."
Steve sighed in relief, his eyes glancing over to the teenager. A teenager. She doesn't need to be in this mess. "She's a secretive person. I don't even know that much about her."
"And yet you still trust her?"
The Captain pondered for a moment, an obvious answer coming to his mind. "I would trust her with my life. I already have a couple times."
Tony nodded, glancing down at the table. "How old is she? Nineteen, twenty?"
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"What is she to you? A sister figure, a daughter figure, a protegee?" Tony said, his hand gesturing to the Assassin. "If she was to get caught, she's old enough to go to an actual prison, not Juvy."
Steve felt a pang in his heart. "Well, I guess we're both lucky that she's smart enough to not get caught."
Tony hummed, looking out the window to see her back. Who was she?
★
Leaving the amused man, Chloe moved to an unoccupied couch, where she found the new Wakandan king sitting on the other side. She gave him a curt nod, and sat down, closing her eyes for half a second―
―They were on a train― why is it always raining?― both London Assassins fighting a Blighter. Rexford Kaylock? Was that his name? Something along those lines. Evie kicked him off the train, and Jacob picked up the, what was that, a grappling hook? They looked back, and for a moment she swore they looked at her―
―and when she opened them, she saw Natasha staring right at her. The older woman gave her a smile. "I didn't see you come in."
Chloe shrugged. "Most people didn't."
Natasha nodded, glancing down at the sitting woman. "Do you really want to be here? You could leave, stay out of this mess."
"Nat, while I appreciate you trying to protect me― trust me, I really do―" she said, looking up at the woman. "I owe Cap a favor. Can't back out now."
"Not going to lie, I kind of expected that." she nodded, smiling. "Speaking of, I think Cap wants to see you. He's in the conference room."
Chloe nodded to her, smiling. Pulling herself from the couch, she joined Steve in the glass conference room. She walked up to the standing man and nodded. "Cap."
"Chloe." he greeted, his eyes glued to the monitor screen in front of him. "Was that you, with the buzzer thing?"
She nodded, turning to sit down next to Sam. She spun in her chair, looking at the distant screens that monitored the room Bucky was being held in. She glanced at Sam. "Is the glass cage necessary? Like I said, they're treating him like an animal."
Sam just hummed. She rolled her eyes, straining to hear the conversation between Bucky and the man sitting before him.
A blonde woman came in and handed Sam a packet of paper. "The receipt for your gear."
"'Bird costume'?" Sam questioned. "Come on."
"I didn't write it." she defended. Chloe smirked, her eyes still glued to the screens.
The lady pressed a button, the audio from the screens blasting through. The teenager glanced at the woman and rested her arms on her knees, her attention taken from the interview.
"―I'm not here to judge you." the interviewer spoke. "I just want to ask you a few questions."
Chloe felt a pang in her heart. Something wasn't right about this. She felt her instincts screaming at her to do something, to get that man away from Bucky. She brushed them aside for the moment and focused back on the two.
"―My name is Bucky." the man spoke, his voice rough.
Chloe stood up carefully, as she slowly gave in to her instincts. She approached Steve and grabbed his elbow. When she knew she had his attention, she scanned the others before her. "Something isn't right about this."
She let go of his elbow and watched the screen at his side. Steve exhaled, drawing her attention. He stepped around her and picked up a lone file from the table. "Why would the task force release this photo to begin with?"
"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" the woman answered.
Chloe turned away from the monitor, interested in the conversation. She saw Steve nod his head. "Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."
The Assassin nodded at his words. "If Bucky went through the same amount of training I think he did, then I would assume he'd know how to avoid cameras. Infiltrating a building requires more than just entering it."
"You're saying someone framed him to find him?"
"Steve, we looked for the guy for two years and found nothing," Sam argued.
"We didn't bomb the UN," he shot back. "That turns a lot of heads."
"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him, it guarantees that we would." she stopped suddenly, and realization dawned on Chloe.
"Yeah," Steve muttered.
"Damn it," she scolded herself, whipping her head to the screen. "How could I forget?"
Ignoring the questioning looks, Chloe blinked, the blue sight filling her eyes. And there, right in front of Bucky, was a man coated in red.
Leaving the others behind, Chloe ran out of the room, her hands quickly turning on her earpiece. "Alex, I don't have the time to explain, but can you get me to the level Barnes is being held in?"
"Yeah, but that involves hacking the UN―"
She skidded to a stop in the outside hallway, ducking behind a wall. "―How fast can you hack them?"
She heard typing. "Done. Okay, now, listen to me carefully. We're going to sub-level five, east wing―"
The earpiece went dead as all the lights went out. She tapped the earpiece. "Alex?"
Chloe heard two pairs of footsteps behind her. She flicked out her hidden blade (she changed it from the electrical one, call her old-fashioned) and spun around, going into defense mode. She forced herself to relax when she saw Steve and Sam hold up their hands in surrender, letting the blade sink back into the gauntlet. "Sorry, a force of habit."
Steve nodded and walked forwards, pulling Chloe along. The teenager found herself in between Sam and Steve, forcing her to roll her eyes. Still the protective ones, I see.
Nevertheless, she ran through the crowds of confused UN workers and hid her face from the security cameras. The three eventually reached their destination, but to find knocked out security guards and flashing red lights.
They walked on carefully, finding the next room to be filled with dozens of unconscious guards. She felt the blade pressed against her arm, her training flicking on like a light-switch.
"Help me," a weak voice came. It was the interviewer, laying on the floor, groaning.
Chloe scoffed, her eyes furious at the man. She stayed behind in the room and let Steve handle the man. She didn't know how the others would react if they saw a mutilated body on the floor with the murder weapon in her hands.
She knelt down to feel the pulse of a guard. Sam walked past her to the other room, only to be attacked by the Soldier. Chloe jumped to her feet, watching as Sam was thrown across the room. Before she could run in, Steve jumped in to fight, managing to get a few punches in before he was knocked to the ground.
Chloe jumped in, giving Steve enough time to get up, and sliced his side with her blade, muttering a quick sorry as she did. However, she was knocked to the ground after the Soldier swept her off her feet.
As Chloe stumbled for her footing, she heard a punch and saw Steve being shoved through an elevator shaft. She shut her eyes tightly, slowly standing up. This is not helping my concussion at all.
A man walked past, shoving her down again. Chloe cursed at her vulnerability and worked her way up again. She heard Sam call to the impostor who left the scene. She cursed his name, finally finding her footing once again.
Sam got up to chase the man as Chloe stayed behind, stumbling to the elevator. She looked down to see Steve stand up slowly, grimacing while he did so. Chloe sighed in relief at the fact that he wasn't dead and called down. "Need some help?"
Steve eyed the area and called to the Assassin. "Go find Bucky, I'll figure it out."
She nodded and left, following the trail of fallen guards. She hesitated, seeing many people who were hovering in the corners, or people who were lying injured on the floor.
Deciding to throw Cap's orders out the window, Chloe ran up to an injured guard, letting her place an arm around her shoulders. She called the group of interns in a corner, letting them catch up to her.
Leading them down the building, the Assassin would call to those who were hovering in corners or order the ones who could to help those who were injured. By the time her group made to the front doors, a good twenty to twenty-five people were with her, all either exhausted, terrified, or both.
Chloe led them away from the building, the woman who was leaning on her shoulders giving her a thankful look. "Who are you?"
"No one important, just a friend," she responded, handing the woman off to someone else.
The teenager watched as her group left, making sure they all made it out safely. Nodding to herself, Chloe uprooted from her spot and set off to find Steve, and hopefully Sam and Bucky while she was at it.
★
ayyeee, more fight scenes. also, look, it's my baby Claudia who is a precious bean. aw, look at her being accepted by the Assassins
anyway, hope you all enjoyed this somewhat lengthy chapter!
Happy belated Fourth of July!
edited: 4/13/18
remind me to start putting time stamps on my chapters when I post them.
peace,
aidan.