The Panther
We entered the apartment that was supposedly Bucky's, dressed in our full suits, Steve's shield around his arm. The apartment was small, bare. Newspapers had been taped to the windows, blocking out the view and dimming the light. Makeshift shelves had been built from breezeblocks and long planks of wood, but those too were bare. There was fridge that, when I looked inside of it, only contained orange juice. A small cooker looked untouched beside it.
"This is awful." I commented as Steve and I stared at the bed, a mattress shoved against a wall with thin sheets. "Does he really live here?"
Steve didn't reply, looking too horrified and concerned for his friend's living arrangements. It truly was dingy and grim, strange when the pair of us were used to the Tower. Despite everything Bucky - or, technically the Winter Soldier - had done, I found myself feeling sorry for him, having to live here, hidden from the world. Now everyone thinks he's responsible for the explosion in Vienna.
I frowned as Steve picked up a notebook from the top of the fridge and I crossed the room to peer into it as he opened the book. There were several pages covered in writings in different languages. I could decipher a few, but Steve turned the page too fast for me to properly read it. He landed on a page marked by a photo of himself as Captain America.
"Heads up , guys" Sam's voice came through the radio. "German Special Forces, approaching from the south."
"Understood." Steve replied.
We both felt it at the same time - the feeling of someone behind us. We lifted our heads and turned to find Bucky, dressed in casual clothes, staring at us. He hadn't even made a sound as he entered the apartment.
"Do you know me?" Steve asked, his voice guarded.
"You're Steve. I read about you in a museum." Bucky said, his gaze then flicking to me. "And you're Rosalie. You're in magazines."
I frowned, wondering which gossip magazines I'd managed to find my way into thanks to the Stark name.
"They've set the perimeter." Sam told us.
Steve put the book down on a table. "I know you're nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying."
"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore." Bucky defended himself.
"They're entering the building."
"The people who think you did are coming here. Now." I told him and his eyes seemed to grow afraid. "They're not planning on taking you alive."
"That's smart," Bucky said resignedly. "Good strategy."
We heard footsteps in the distance. "They're on the roof. I'm compromised."
"We don't have much time," I whispered to Steve and he nodded. The footsteps were getting closer, coming up the building's stairwell.
"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck." Steve told his friend.
Bucky moved away from us, closer to the door. His expression was entirely heartbreaking, sad. "It always ends in a fight."
"Five seconds."
I found out my gun from my belt, readying it. I didn't know what I'd use it for, but I was prepared. Steve glanced to the blocked-out windows and then back to Bucky. "You pulled me from the river," his voice was louder now, more desperate. "Why?"
Bucky removed his left glove, revealing the metal fingers beneath it. "I don't know."
"Three seconds."
"Yes you do." Steve replied."
"Breach! Breach! Breach!"
A window exploded into shards of glass and Steve threw up his shield in front of the pair of us as small bombs rolled in. One landed by Bucky's feet and he kicked it to Steve, who placed his shield over the top of it and captured the blast as it went off beneath it. The door slammed as someone began to barge it and Bucky flung a small table towards it, lodging in the entranceway. The other windows shattered as several figures burst through them, clad in their gear and big guns at their sides. Bucky and Steve took one each and I took another as he aimed his gun towards me.
I ducked and the bullets fired into the wall behind me. I rolled forward on the floor, wincing as the glass bit into my skin through my suit, and landed by his feet, kicking upwards to dislodge the gun from his hands. He dropped it and it slid across the room away from him. He made a grab for me and lifted me by my shoulders, flinging me against the wall. I retaliated quickly, using the wall to push off and kicking him towards Steve, who hit the man around the head until he fell to the floor.
Steve then grabbed Bucky by the now-open door. "Buck, stop! You're gonna kill someone!"
Something in him had switched and he grabbed Steve and pushed him to the ground, making a punch towards him but Steve moved his head quick enough for Bucky's fist to land in the floorboards.
I raced forward and made to get him off Steve, but he stopped. "I'm not going to murder anyone." His hand pulled out a backpack from the floorboards and he flung it out of the door, down the building.
More soldiers entered the room, Bucky pushing me behind him and catching the bullets that they fired with his arm, Steve reacting quickly and standing with his shield out too. Times like these made me wonder why I came on these missions when these two were essentially bulletproof and I was not, but I was grateful for their protection.
Bucky pushed Steve towards one of the soldiers and the pair of them went through the window. Bucky battled the other two soldiers, one of them going into the bathroom via breezeblock. The other I managed to shoot in the ankle, between the top of his boot and bottom of his trouser leg. He yowled in pain as Bucky then took him out too.
Shots fired at the door, the person behind it shooting at the hinge. But Bucky didn't wait for him to open the door, he punched his metal fist through the wall and then burst down the door himself, going out into the hallway.
"Steve?!" I shouted and he came in through the window again, looking at the abandoned flat and then me.
"Alright?" he asked and I nodded. "Where did he go?"
I didn't have to answer for the sheer noise in the building stairwell told us exactly where Bucky was. Shots went off and we heard several people yelling out in pain or grunting in effort. We left the apartment, one of the soldiers against the wall, speaking in rapid German into a radio. Steve took it from him and crushed it.
Then he jumped two flights of stairs down towards where Bucky was fighting another soldier. I rolled my eyes but peered over the banister, seeing several more soldiers preparing themselves, others already unconscious around the stairs. I fired a few shots at them, missing most of them on purpose. Warning shots - telling them to leave before it was too late.
I watched as Bucky threw a man over the rails, ready to let him fall to his death, but Steve caught him before he could fall. "Come on, man," he gave Bucky a look.
I ran down a few flights of stairs, stepping over the bodies. At one point, a man tried to grab me and pull me down the stairs with him, but I rounded on him and kicked his head until it hit the wall and he was out cold. Not dead.
The sound of metal creaking caught my eye. Bucky had ripped apart the railing and used it to swing down to another level. Another soldier came flying at me, gun lost. He made to hit my face and I ducked again to avoid it. I kicked out at his chest but he managed to catch my leg and twist until I fell and hit the stairs, knocking the wind from my chest, my arms breaking the fall for my face until I barely hit it. I groaned and tried to get up but the man grabbed me from behind, lifting my body for me. His arms wrapped around my chest, squeezing the air out and I kicked at him. There would be no point trying to headbutt him as he still wore his helmet - it would only hurt me further.
His arms were ripped away and I fell to my knees as Steve tore him off me and flung him against the wall. "You okay?" he asked me as he extended a hand. I took it gladly and got up, brushing myself down.
I wiped my head and found a small scratch bleeding. But it was only small, so I nodded at Steve and gave him my best smile. "Let's go."
We headed down the stairs, finding a door broken down and figuring that's where Bucky left through. The apartment was abandoned and relatively untouched as we made our way through it all the way through to the balcony.
"Shit," I breathed as we saw Bucky on the top of a lower building in front of us, battling another figure who was dressed differently to the other soldiers. This man was covered entirely in black, an animal-like mask covering his face. He moved with terrifying speed, light on his feet and matching Bucky with strength. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before.
Steve backed up, ready to jump for it. We saw Sam flying around the corner of our building. "Sam, southwest rooftop."
"Who the hell's the other guy?" Sam's response came.
"About to find out." Steve said as he shook his head and ran for the balcony, leaping off it and onto the building with Bucky.
A helicopter flew around all of us, but we didn't know if it was friendly or not yet. We decided not as it began to shoot at Bucky and the other figure. I lifted my gun and checked to see how many bullets I had left: two.
"Sam, Rose," Steve ordered.
"We got him." Sam replied as I aimed the gun at the helicopter, Sam flying towards it. I fired at the motor in the back as Sam kicked it until it swung out. Bucky used the distraction to get himself off the building, the figure in black following. Steve chased after them both.
"Sam! A lift?" I asked, feeling thoroughly abandoned.
I heard his laughter and then saw him reemerge, swooping up to get me. I climbed onto the balcony and launched myself off until he caught me, flying us down to where the other three had run off to.
We followed the helicopter as it shot again. We saw Bucky drop into a tunnel, the others following. "Drop me there!" I called to Sam and he obeyed as he lowered me close enough for me to drop into the tunnel, on top of a soldier's car. The man was part of the German Special Forces and I quickly grabbed onto the car as it flew forward. With difficulty, I moved to the side and opened the door, pulling the surprised man out and swinging myself down into his car.
I took over, driving forward until I found Steve. He looked stressed, but relieved when he saw me in the car. He got in the other side and punched out the broken window. I put my foot down, surging towards Bucky in front of us when something landed on the car. Through the side mirror, I saw the figure that Bucky had been fighting. A panther, that's what it was, I realised. Whoever they were, they were dressed as a panther, and seemed just as deadly.
"Rose!" Steve warned me and I nodded, veering the car harshly to the left and then the right, but the panther wouldn't budge.
"Sam, I can't shake him!" I called as the panther climbed the back of the car.
"Right behind you!"
Sirens began to wail behind us as the police and soldiers chased after all of us. "You're gonna have to try again," Steve told me, watching the panther on our car.
I gritted my teeth and veered again, this time into another car, feeling terrible for hitting them. I saw Bucky still on foot, jumping on to the other ide of the tunnel as more cars came in from the end of it. I followed with the car, hoping that hitting the barriers would have thrown the panther off. It didn't as we left the tunnel and followed after Bucky as he acquired a motorbike into another set of tunnels.
We saw Sam fly overhead, close. The panther moved, jumping over the car onto the bonnet and then propelling off it to Bucky on the bike. Bucky reached hand out and grabbed him by the neck, keeping him afar, but the panther merely ran up the side of the tunnel and attacked, the bike tipping sideways until Bucky could properly throw him off.
I swerved to avoid hitting him and watched through the mirrors as he found Sam, latching onto him and trying to bring him down. "Seriously, who is this guy?" I yelled as I kept close to Bucky.
"Watch out!" Steve made a grab for the wheel as Bucky threw up an explosive and it went off at the edge of the tunnel. Rubble and rock fell onto the car as Steve and I drove through it, Sam shaking off the panther until he flew out of the tunnel onto Bucky.
The car began to tip dangerously. "Get out!" Steve cried and we both flung open the doors and rolled out, getting up as fast as possible and chasing after Bucky and the panther. Steve launched himself at the panther, who was on top of Bucky, and the figure rolled, getting himself into a crouch, ready to attack.
Steve and I stood by Bucky, who slowly rose from the ground. The panther rose, too, as the police cars surrounded us.
Then a familiar suit dropped down into the circle. Rhodey, arms up and aimed at us. "Stand down. Now." His voice sounded dangerous, almost angry.
I glanced around us. There had to be at least twenty soldiers aiming guns at all of us, waiting for us to even make a move. I shared a look with Steve. This was not good, especially after the Accords and the explosion in Vienna. The public had seen us - Steve and I - fighting in public. What would that do to our image now? We'd look even more out of control than the world already thought we were.
I slowly raised my arms in surrender, not knowing where my gun had been discarded anyway. Steve put his shield back in its holder on his back and raised his arms too.
"Congratulations, Cap, Rosalie. You're criminals." Rhodey told us, no sympathy in his voice. I'd known him for so many years that I winced at his words. I didn't want to be on the other side of Rhodey and Tony - and Nat. But this was how it had to be. I just didn't expect it to hurt me so much.
The soldiers neared us and quickly cuffed Bucky. I heard Sam being herded towards us from behind and soon Steve and I were roughly cuffed too. The metal bit into my skin but I didn't look away from the panther as he flicked his hands, the claws retracting. Then he removed his mask and I breathed in sharply.
T'Challa - the son of the late King T'Chaka. Which meant... "Your Highness." Rhodey said respectfully, if not a tad sarcastically.
T'Challa said nothing, just glanced to where Bucky was being restrained on the ground, then to Steve and I standing side by side.
I had no words, except for: shit.