"Sometimes, breaking out of a certain mentality is like planning a prison break. You can't just go for it and hope for the best, it requires strategy."
Aphrodite Harper.
"Alright, I'm getting out of here. No plan, no strategy. Let's get it poppin'." I said, and Clint laughed at me.
"You know they can hear you, right?" He asked, and I shrugged.
"Correct. If they come, they die. It's simple logic, Barton." I smirked, and cracked my knuckles.
Tony needs me.
Steve needs me.
So I'm gonna be there.
"You sure you don't wanna plan this out?" Sam asked, and I shook my head.
"They can hear me, what's the point? I could think up the most articulate plan in the whole world, and it still won't work because they'll know exactly what I'm doing, Sam." I pointed out, and he nodded, knowing I was right.
"Y'all in or out?" I asked, and they were silent.
"I'll do my time." Sam said, and Wanda nodded.
"I'm not getting in more trouble." She said, and I sighed.
Fair enough.
"I'm hoping they'll put me on house arrest since I have a kid. Clint could do the same." Scott said, making Clint clap.
"That's smart. You're on your own, Dite. Good luck." He said, and I smiled.
"It's been fun guys. Hopefully I see you again, but not here." I laughed, and they chuckled.
"Good luck, Aphrodite." Sam said, and I smiled.
I cracked my back and neck, smirking to myself, and summoning a small ball of fire, holding it to the thick glass holding me in.
The glass eventually started to crack, slowly but surely spreading over the entire wall.
Once it had cracked enough, I stopped burning it, and sent a large gush of wind at it, making the wall completely shatter and fly into the middle of the room, away from me.
"Holy shit!" Scott exclaimed, and I stepped out of my cell, wiping my hands and grinning.
"That's how you do it, kids." I laughed, and Wanda smirked.
"Good luck."
"Don't need it." I winked at her, making her smile a little.
I walked up to the metal door, which had a keypad.
Interesting.
Placing my hands on the metal, I closed my eyes, moving my hands up and down the door, trying to find the earth inside of it.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
"There you are." I grinned, feeling the earth inside the door.
I punched the door, feeling it bend at my will, and ripped it off the hinges.
"How the fuck did you do that?" Clint asked, and I turned around to look at him.
"There's earth inside metal. See you later." I smirked, and ran outside the room, to find two armed guards running towards me.
"I wouldn't, gentlemen." I warned, but they ignored me, taking their stance and aimed at me.
"Have it your way." I said, sending air into their guns, causing the barrels to expand and explode in their hands.
I sent the two men flying afterwards, running between them and pushing myself up the ladder instead of climbing it.
Gotta save time where I can.
I found five armed officers when I moved up the level, making me roll my eyes.
"Fine, hard way it is." I groaned, and sent air their way, making them all lose balance before they could shoot at me.
Two men stood up, and tried to shoot me, but I set a few chairs on fire, sending them flying at the men who screamed and ducked out of the way.
While they were distracted, I ran past them, and saw a main door beginning to shut, and I knew I didn't have time to slide under it.
I pushed a huge blast of air at it, causing it to break off the hinges and fly at whoever was standing behind it, another three men getting crushed underneath the weight of the door.
"God why is this facility so big!" I yelled in frustration, and pushed myself up another level with wind.
"Oh, hey Ross." I said, and Ross turned around to look at me, absolutely infuriated.
"Get back in your cell." He ordered, and I shook my head.
"No can do, boss." I shrugged, and welded the door shut with fire, so he couldn't get out.
Ross started banging on the door, and I chuckled.
"Sorry, Ross. They'll get you out when I'm gone." I said, walking over to the cabinet where they held my stuff.
I grabbed my phone and my suit, but left the rest.
I quickly ran up a ramp to the final level, where there were five men.
"Hey guys. Ross said I'm good to go, could you open the hatch for me?" I asked, and one man pressed the button, but got hit over the head by someone else.
"No she didn't!"
"Guessing you're new?" I asked the man who hit the button, and he nodded.
"Sorry about this, then. No hard feelings." I shrugged, and pushed them all off the floor with another wave of wind, but made sure they landed safely but making them float down the last floor.
Once we'd risen above sea level, the hatch opened, making me grin to myself.
"I'm the best." I said, jumping onto the edge and looking at the wide ocean around me.
I quickly slid my jumpsuit off, pulling my pants, crop top and jacket back on, feeling good again.
I sent a small amount of water down into the prison, hitting the button to send the prison back below water.
Once it had been pushed underwater, I stepped on the ocean, maneuvering the water underneath me to keep me ontop of it.
I checked my texts and saw one from Tony, giving me his location.
'Incase you break out baby, come here.'
I smirked to myself, and started skating over the ocean to get to Tony.
Call me Elsa.
"Friday?" I asked my phone, knowing Tony programmed her to answer me.
"Welcome back from captivity, Miss Harper, what can I do for you?"
"Can you see my location?" I asked, and Friday answered straight away.
"Of course, Miss Harper."
"Can you see Tony's?" I asked, realising already that was a stupid question.
"Indeed."
"Fantastic. Can you direct me to Tony? As quickly as possible please." I said, feel triumphant as ever.
"Of course. Continue straight until I tell you, Miss Harper. You are not far out."
Brilliant.
"Tell Tony to wait for me, I'm on my way." I smirked, and Friday didn't respond for a moment, but came back quickly.
"Mr Stark says he will wait for you, I told him you are about ten minutes away. Turn right now, Miss Harper. You should see a snowy mountain on the horizon."
I looked, and sure enough, in the distance, there was a mountain.
"What would I do without you, thankyou Friday." I said, smirking.
"Good luck, Miss Harper."
I reached the mountain and saw an open door, but no Tony.
What if they found him?
I heard a muffled voice, so I leaned on the door and listened it.
"You seem a little defensive." I heard some say, making me widen my eyes, but chuckle.
It's Tony. What a little jerk.
"It's been a long day." I heard Steve reply, so I walked in, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Hello boys, what a coincidence." I grinned, making Tony smile.
"I'm so glad you got out." He whispered, hugging me and kissing my forehead.
"Me too. It was pretty fun." I grinned, wrapping my arms around his waist.
We let go after a few seconds, and I looked at Barnes and Steve, who were staring at is cautiously.
"At ease, Soldier. I'm not currently after you." Tony said to Barnes, and Steve looked uncomfortable.
"Then why are you here?" He asked, and I grinned, looking at Tony, waiting for him to admit he was wrong.
"Could be your story's not so crazy. Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I gotta arrest myself." Tony said, and Steve looked like he relaxed.
"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork." He said, making me smile.
"Ross won't know you're here. He's a bit occupied." I said, and everyone looked at me.
"What do you mean?" Steve asked, and I shrugged.
"When I broke out to come here, I welded Ross shut in his office. He won't be coming out for a while." I said, and Tony snickered.
"That's my girl."
Steve lowered his shield, and looked at us.
"It's good to see you, both of you."
"You too, Cap." Tony said, and I smiled at Steve.
"Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop-" Tony said to Barnes, and Steve interrupted him, to signal for Barnes to lower the gun.
He did, and the four of us started walking around the building, trying to find the super soldiers.
"I got heat signatures." Tony said, once we'd approached a large room.
"How many?" Steve asked, and Tony paused.
"Uh, one."
We entered the large chamber, and the lights suddenly flickered on, making me jump in surprise.
There were five large capsules with yellow mist inside of them, and when I looked closer, I noticed they all had bullet holes in their foreheads.
I gave the boys a worried look, but a voice on the speakers stopped me from saying anything.
"If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep." It was the same man that interrogated Barnes.
"Did you really think I wanted more of you?"
"What the hell?" Barnes asked, and we shared a concerned look.
"I'm grateful to them, though. They brought you here."
A light flickered on, showing Zemo in a control room.
Steve hurled his shield, but it hit the wall in front of him and came straight back to him.
"Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."
"I'm betting I could beat that." Tony said smugly, and I grinned.
He obviously could.
"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came." Zemo said, and I rolled my eyes.
"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve asked, and we approached Zemo.
"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you." Zemo said, and Steve walked up to him, staring at him.
"But now that you're standing here, I just realised, there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes. How nice to find a flaw." He said, making me look at Tony and pretend to throw up, gagging into my hands.
"Dramatic." I coughed into my arm, and I noticed Barnes looked like of amused.
"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?" Steve asked, and I looked at Zemo.
"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."
"You lost someone?" I asked, and Zemo clicked his tongue.
"I lost everyone. And so will all of you." He said, making me roll my eyes.
Okay chief.
A small monitor came on, showing surveillance footage from December sixteenth, 1991.
"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumples from within? That's dead forever." Zemo said, and I stared at the screen.
"I know that road." Tony whispered, and looked at Zemo.
"What is this?"
We looked at the screen, and it showed a car driving down the street, but crashing into a tree as a motorcycle drove by.
Tony looked upset, Steve looked worried, and Barnes looked ashamed.
Oh.
I know what this is.
I took Tony's hand in mine, squeezing it, and he didn't let go.
Tony didn't know what this was yet.
A man stepped off the motorcycle, walking over to the man in the drivers seat and dragging him out the car.
Tony's breath hitched in his throat when he saw who it was.
Howard Stark.
"Help my wife. Please. Help." Howard begged the man standing in front of him.
I watched as Barnes, or the Winter Soldier grabbed Howard, staring at him.
"Sergeant Barnes?"
"Howard!" Maria stark exclaimed, and I noticed Tony look away from the screen and at Barnes, who wasn't watching the footage.
He wasn't looking because he knew what was about to happen.
I looked back at the screen in time to see The Winter Soldier begin punching Howard, and cringed, looking away again.
"Howard!"
Tony closed his eyes, and I tightened my grip around his hand.
I looked back at the screen, and saw that Howard was slumped over, dead.
The Winter Soldier put him back in the drivers seat, and leaned him down so that his face was on the steering wheel.
Tony looked back at the screen, and I could read his face.
He was mortified.
He was broken.
The footage then showed the Winter Soldier walk around to the passenger side and grab Maria by the throat, showing no expression in his face as he killed her.
Then he shot the surveillance camera.