#cw HYDRA muse

[awbarnes-no]

@wormholxtreme: but tell us about Anya's handler and how she got away from him. How does her relationship with him affect her relationship with other authority/parental figures?

Buckle in boys and girls, this is gonna be a bit of a post. THIS HEADCANON CONTAINS EXTREMLY TRIGGERING CONTENT!!! I just wanna get that out in the open before we dive into this. For a lot of people enslaved by HYDRA, their Handlers are the source of some very special trauma's. V is no exception.

( placing under read more to save on space and for triggers. )

She never knew his name for starters. From the day she met him when she was a girl, she only ever knew him as V. He had been a presence since she started her combat training, overseeing her training and then being her primary handler for missions. ( the Soldier being the only other person she would comply with by design. ) The HYDRA agent was also among the small number of people who ever knew about the true parentage of Anya. ( that information was never digitally recorded and any documented proof as of now is lost. )

On a good day, the dynamic the two tended to have was akin to a controlling father ( or pretending to be ) leading with a cruel method, inflicting harsh punishment on the girl for failure ( resulting in her complete aversion to failure all together. ) only to flip when she acted favorably, resulting in a desperation to please out of fear of the alternative.

There's also the added layer of the insurance he has on his control over her. When Anya was brought into the fold, she was a baby. Once she had developed enough that it was safe for her body, she underwent a surgery, chemically altering her brain to react to a pheromonal agent that certain people wore. This reaction would render her unable to deny an order given. Two were given this. One was V from day one, and later the Soldier once it was confirmed they didn't need to worry about his programming failing. Between the two of them . . . the young girl's rage could be quelled.

Tasked with attempting to unlock her mutation, V was instructed to place her on a solo mission, the Soldier bein kept outside, while she went in for a hit. The hit was rigged from the beginning, the gun she was sent in ( and given to her by V ) empty. She barely escaped with her life, but managed to complete the mission none the less. When she confronted V about it, he simply shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

All he cared about was if it happened . . .

Before she could even inquire what he meant, something snapped in the Winter Soldier, and after a fight, a bullet was ultimately fired into V's head. To the knowledge of Bucky and Anya . . . V was a dead man.

The effect V has had on Anya has lasted since that day her and Bucky made their escape. Luckily, V didn't have too much effect on her and Bucky's relationship, once she was away from him. There was enough fear of her handler to trust Bucky more, but V had been the only other authority figure she really had, and liked to play at being her father ( or so he said ) but once she was away from him, that all seemed to settle. Her trust in her immediate family ultimately winning out.

What this did effect however, is her outlook on authority figures. She doesn't trust them. At best, she's suspicious, and often times will put up walls they need to earn to right to bring down. On the other hand, she's aggressively avert toward, often times having angry outbursts when pushed too far. From a young age, Anya demonstrated a rage unparalleled by any soldier HYDRA had seen, relying on the few who had control over her to quell that. When V had control, he enjoyed pointing that rage at his enemies. She's gotten better since then. But there's still a bomb under there. Waiting to go off.

[brooklynbred-m]

@skullsandsteel asked: ‘You should have killed me when you had the chance’

He was right about that , that was for sure. Steve had a bone to pick with Rumlow , and it only 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝙱𝚄𝙲𝙺𝚈. His eyes narrowed at the 𝙷𝚈𝙳𝚁𝙰 𝙰𝙶𝙴𝙽𝚃 , a stone cold glare in his eyes. He let him get away once . . . He wasn't about to let that happen again.

❝ Trust me , ❞ He started , his jaw clenched impossibly tight as he stared down the other. ❝ Don't plan on makin that mistake again Rumlow. ❞

[lastavengedarchived]

Rules

once again for length, I will throw this under the read more. in general, be nice, this blog is not mutual exclusive, but may be low activity and selective.

hi im izzy, i'm 26, they/them. i only work as a part time theatre technican and so im around sporadiacally. @mastcrmarksman is my main blog.

you are welcome to like this post.

MUTAUALS ONLY + friends & plotted priority

please read my note about "ncu-remixed" at the bottom

GENERAL - non mutual friendly, oc friendly, cross over friend, but prefer to only follow, write with, and be followed by people who are 21+

HUB BLOG -  this blog hosts two sideblogs ( @justcallmered / vigilante oc ) If you are just following for the sideblogs, consider yourself a mutual. You do not have to follow this main blog.

DUPES - Duplicates are welcome to follow this, I may not follow back for other Peppers & Karens but consider us mutuals for sake of sideblogs.

CONNECTIONS - I do participte in having mains, exclusives, ship exclusives, and affilitates and am opening to discusssing these types of connections with mutuals and writing partners.

FORMATTING - I use tumblr dark mode, small text and default tumblr colored text for dialouge, but I can accommendate on request. I use x-kit to cut my posts and prefer for posts to be tagged at least with a blog's url or something, just in case of needing to track or blacklist.

TRIGGERS - I do not have any triggrers, but given certain muses topics of addiction, suicide, depression, abuse and grooming are present, sp tread lightly but all heavy topics and triggers are tagged with "content cw"

NSFW - I rarely post NSFW and normally do not write smut (with some exceptions). So don't expect much from me, especially if we are shipping. There is hinting at and discussion of the muses' sex lives, but detailed smut writing isn't an interest/focus to me.

INBOX + DMS - My ask is always open, anon is turnd on. Non mutuals are welcome to send asks, memes, and start conversations through ask box first. Mutuals are welcome to dm me. There is no time limit on memes.

OC CHILDREN - I don’t mind them with the exception of Pepper, I will only acknowledge them as a multiverse as a variant’s offspring instead of child of MY Pepper; she is not your mom. My Pepper is trans, along with generally she does not want to have children anymore. The only “children” she has is being "step-mom" to Jamie (teen abnomination / you know from sim)

DNI - minors, white washed characters (mcu maximoffs for example), active hydra characters (they are fucking nazis), youtuber, content creator or minecraft muses, real people muses i'm just not comfortable w/ how parasocial that gets. any form of bigotry, all the isms/phobias (rac/ism, sex/ism, homo/phobia, trans/phobia etc etc).

DISCOURSE - the muse does not reflect the views of the mun. Plenty of the media we consume and get attached to will display characters of varying views and behaviors etc etc. To some degree we can and should detach from that, and I do, I am detached from my muses and do not share their views. i do not condone any form of bigotry. as well as if any discourse comes up, assume that I, the mun, have looked into it, taken necessary action, and will react as an adult.

SAFE SPACE - my blog is my safe space first and foremost. it is curated for me. i will block, soft block, remove myself, and do as needed to maintain that. as well as i have the right to decline anything if i simply do not vibe as my blog is my blog, it is a space for me.

FUN STUFF - fluff, angst, slice of lifee, content heavy, dialouge heavy, paragraphs, crossovers, aus, multi-verse, multi-ship, anon asks, ask box starters, mutual random starters, edits, you name the fun

MCU - typically I will do crossover/multiverse shenangians with 616/MCU when it comes to MCU. I just don't vibe with MCU, and I also jut haven't watched it. The only verison that you will see is Karen has an NCU verse. I don't hate the MCU, I just don't gel with it and that may be my autism/special interest being specific 616 comics.

NCU Remixed - basically, I do treat the originally Netflix shows as separate/removed from the MCU, and will use those as origin canons or use the events in them as verses/canons, namely in Karen's case. Everything else from the MCU (the films, the other shows) are rejected, and I'll pull from 616 and comic event. NCU is like an alternate origin for Karen basically, that blends her LA arc from the comics into her NCU origin.

Basically what is accepted into "canon" for this verse - Daredevil s1 thru 3, Jessica Jones s1 thru 3, Punisher s1 thur 2, Iron Fist s1 thru 2, Luke Cage s1 thru 2, and The Defenders.

Anything after or before, I am not familiar with and don't think about (or involve into Karen's canon). Basically films and disney plus shows are amiss, both from a knowledge point ( but that doesn't mean i won't write with mcu folks or do some plotting for events; i just can't emphasize enough this "izzy's neurodivergence way of framing canon")

So where does that leave the rest of the universe?

In general, basically since these are origin stories, it is a more "comic" accurate imagining of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men to me; meaning like the OG Avengers being Wasp, Ant Man (Hank), Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. Followed by the next iteration of the Avengers team introducing Cap's Kooky Squad (Cap, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Black Panter, rejoined Wasp and Yellowjacket (Hank) and Black Widow, Herucles etc etc).

Spider-man has entered into college age and is vibing around with the Coffee Bean Gang of that era.

Fantastic Four has been around for a bit.

Leaves a potential for throwing around ideas like that and introducing some comic events remixed.

[ghostofwinter]

Warnings

This blog is not for minors. This blog will explore dark content including violence, sexual themes, and abuse. Hydra will be present. I enjoy writing darker, more adult themes. Interact and/or read at your own risk. You are responsible for your media consumption.

Remember that Mun ≠ Muse. Triggers and content warnings will be tagged.

Block the following tags if you are still interested in following but don't wish to see the content.

〔⋇⋆ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʜᴀᴅᴏᴡꜱ⋆⋇〕 - 18+ content [sexual themes] 〔⋇⋆ʜʏᴅʀᴀ⋆⋇〕 & 〔⋇⋆ʜʏᴅʀᴀ'ꜱ ꜱʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ⋆⋇〕 - Hydra mentions, Hydra verse. 〔⋇⋆ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ⋆⋇〕 - Violence, gore, and weaponry. tw hydra mention cw hydra mention

[atimebombarcarchive]

more for your other blog but any watchmen muse / brock rumlow / the old jurassic park characters like alan grant, ian malcolm who was a character that was almost written out.

multi - muse game     :     suggest up to three muses for the mun to add to their blog.

-To be honest, I don’t know anything about Watchmen really. I never saw the film, read the graphic novel, or watched the show.  -Brock Rumlow was a seriously under-utilized villain and I don’t know what it is about Frank Grillo, but I’m like 99% gay but he is also 100% good looking. I also think that a lot of people have it in their rules that they don’t write with current and/or former HYDRA characters (which is like super legitimate), so I doubt I’d see a lot of interaction if I added him. I just wish the MCU films had done more with him, and I feel like if they had started the shows more during phase 3 before CW, they would have done something with him. Definitely was a wasted opportunity with a good actor IMO.  -I love Sam Neill and Alan Grant so much. I’d 100% consider it if I ever take my other blog off of hiatus. Probably not Ian because I just see a lot of people writing him because he’s a popular character and Alan really isn’t. I haven’t seen the newer films (I saw the first JW) so I didn’t see the one with all of them back in it.

[heckpuppyy]

It’s quiet.

The musings about a prince at a breaking point. Everyone deserves to breathe, even those who... uh, don’t.

TW// Mentions of intense negative emotion, mentions of blood, mentions of past Temporary Death, crying CW// Light physical affection, mute!reader

He was tired. His muscles ached, his mind was hazy, and his body bruised and bloodied. Zagreus had tried six times to escape again, but to no avail. It was always something that would come up... be it small like not moving away from one of the blasted traps in time and being sent straight home, or something more disappointing like losing to Champions he’d bested time and again from previous attempts. Nothing quite stung more than the mocking from Theseus when he couldn’t dodge quick enough and he was struck down.

This time, however, felt especially difficult. He only just managed to get away from Alecto and nearly was sent home by the Bone Hydra in a rather embarrassing fashion... but now this? Butterflies. Butterflies had left him within an inch of his life as he pulled himself through another door towards another challenge that he knew he wouldn’t survive. Frustrated, tired, and sore he continued into the room and surveyed the area as best as he could. It wasn’t long before he heard movement beyond his field of vision, immediately putting him on edge. He pulled Coronacht closer to him, knocking one of the divine arrows as he inched closer. Maybe if he could get the jump on it he would be able to survive... though that seemed very unlikely.

He pressed his back up against the phoenix statue and peaked around the corner, though what he was greeted by was not what he was expecting. A shade dressed in red and black gathered water from the healing fountain in a pitcher that looked freshly fired. He relaxed a bit, standing up to his height and taking the figure in a bit more. The shade turned and met eyes with the Prince.

And then it clicked.

Zagreus stood there for a moment so he could take everything in. The Shade who he had come to know and care for was behind the door he was convinced would surely take his life for a seventh time... in front of a fountain even! He couldn’t help himself from starting to laugh. It was comical, really. Convinced one of his family members or some other cruel entity was playing some kind of joke on him... putting him through such anguish to only have exactly what he needed when he had essentially given up on himself this time around.

‘Zagreus...?’ you signed, putting down your pitcher and taking a few tentative steps towards your friend. He was bruised, bloodied, and his eyes were reflecting something you had never seen in them before... hopelessness? No... maybe just exhaustion. Whatever it was, you certainly didn’t like it. Zagreus forced a smile as best as he could and settled his bow on his back as he moved towards you.

“Hello there, Shade. I, uh... wasn’t expecting to see you here.” He spoke, trying not to react as you knit your brows together with a frown.

‘What happened? You look rough...’ you reply, quickly going for the cloth attached to your belt and dipping it into your pitcher. Zagreus shook his head as you reach up and dab some of the grime away from his wounds on his face. You sighed, knowing it’s not your place to force him to talk about it but, at the same time, you really wanted him to...

He noticed the change in your demeanor and sighs himself. He moves your hand away and holds it in his for just a moment.

“I, uh... Can we sit down?” he asked, lowering his head to stare at your hand in his. You soften your expression and nod, gently leading him over to the edge of the fountain and settling yourself on it’s edge, Zagreus deciding to sit on the grass next to you. He doesn’t let go even now, almost feeling a sense of grounding having something that’s positive within reach of him.

“I... Haven’t had any success lately,” he starts, still focusing more on your hands than anything else, “And it’s starting to get to me, I think.”

“I was able to get out of here once, but I... couldn’t stay. I had to come back. When I wasn’t getting anywhere then, it was different. I was still learning, still strategizing... Everything was new and I had time to figure it out.”

He moves again, but this time it’s involuntary. He’s trembling a bit and something wet hit the back of your hand. Was he... was he crying? You reach out with your free hand, but hesitate. Not really knowing where physical boundaries of the Prince of the Underworld lie with friends, though really feeling like even a bit of reassurance would help. You let your hand rest on the back of his head, gently running your fingers through his dark hair in an attempts to sooth whatever could bring such a fierce and mighty champion to upset like this.

This gesture, however, was apparently all that Zagreus needed to understand he was safe. The tears flowed freely now, though he wasn’t sobbing. Just a release of emotions and frustrations and tension he was so bound and determined to hold onto. Like if it weren’t for that bundle of feelings he would’ve lost his fire.

“It’s been such a long time and I just...” he sighs, the breath shaky as he continues to let himself decompress. The rest is understood. ‘I just need a break’. He allows himself this moment to just let it all go, pride aside. The gentle touch from his friend feels so comforting when all he’s felt lately is just disappointment and physical agony. He can feel his heart beat against his chest as the negativity begins to seep out of him, the physical release of finally letting himself feel what he had been ignoring almost euphoric against everything else.

The two of you stay like this for a long while. Eventually, Zagreus looks up to finally meet your eyes. Kind and understanding, they truly felt like the only thing in Elysium he cared about at that moment. You smile, your cheeks would color if they could from such a loving gaze gifted to you. You pull back from him, moving to the cloth again and dipping it into the fountain. Zagreus relaxes as you dab away the dirt and grime from is wounds, the more superficial ones closing from the healing qualities of the water. You hand him the pitcher of water and he drinks deep, polishing off the container as if he’d never had a single drop to drink his entire life. You stand, helping him to his feet and fussing over his tunic for a bit before placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

‘Your failures do not define your success.’ you begin, ‘You made it out once, and you will do it again. Setbacks will continue to happen, but will not be the end. If not this time, maybe the next or even next after that.’

“Shade, I--”

You put up a finger and he quiets. You weren’t finished.

‘You’ll make it to Theseus and Asterius and I will be right where I always am. As your number one fan... and your friend. I will always be here, and not just because I’m dead.’

He laughs. That’s better.

‘Now go get them. I’ll be waiting for you at the Colosseum, and praying to Athena for your arrival. If I don’t see you this time, I will simply come right back here and wait until I see you on your next try. You can do it!’

Zagreus pulls you into a sudden tight hug. It catches you off guard for a moment, You relax and return the gesture, holding him until he finally releases and pulls back on his own.

“Thank you, Shade... I guess I didn’t realize how much I needed this. I’ll... I’ll see you soon. Whether that be with Theseus and Asterius or in this clearing once more. Take care of yourself too, alright?”

You nod in a promise you will. He takes a deep breath and holds it just for a moment before slowly letting it out, mentally steadying himself for the next leg. He lifts your hands up to his lips, gently placing a small kiss to the tops of them before pulling away. He smiles, a tinge of pink to his cheeks before he turns and heads off through the door down another leg of his never ending journey.

You smile to yourself and just watch the door close behind him, reveling in the stillness of your surroundings after. You soon move to collect your pitcher and gather some more of the fountain’s water before heading off on your own path again.

After all, the colosseum is a bit of a walk away. You don’t want to be late to see your favorite Champion claim another victory from the King and his Bull. There was no doubt in your mind it was going to be his best fight yet.

Well! After a bit of a rough week at work, I finally managed to finish this small drabble of mine. Working through some frustrations of my own is kind of what inspired this... but also having some really bad runs myself! As always, critique and feedback is appreciated! I hope you enjoyed! - Baph

[ixalit]

Favorite bucky songs - go!

[you can find all of these in a playlist here or here]

———

In order of his life:

Summer In The City - The Lovin’ Spoonful

Pre war, general bucky vibes

Steve - Jeremy Messersmith

Pre war, pining after Steve

The Soldier’s Song - K’s Choice

WW2 before Steve shows up

Jolene - Radical Face

The bar scene

Lovely - Billie Eilish

First years of Hydra

Once Upon a December - Ryliemn

Bucky remembering Steve while he still can

Mind Games and Serum by Sickick

Winter Soldier conditioning

Blood - My Chemical Romance

More Hydra...

Dead of Night - Ruelle

More Winter Soldier under Hydra

The Handler - Daniel Ferri (or the Muse version)

CA:TWS, bucky breaking free of Hydra

I Was Me - Imagine Dragons

Recovering after breaking free from Hydra

Broken - Anson Seabra

Recovering. Slowly. With a lot of angst and low self-worth. (I think this is my ultimate sad bucky song)

Back From The Edge - James Arthur

Recovering/post CW fanon, finding himself again after Hydra

Weight of Living, Pt. 1 - Bastille

Recovering and shedding the Winter Soldier from who he is now

Leave Me Stranded - Jelle Verbeek

Endgame,,

Survivin’ (One Eyed Jack’s Session)- Bastille

Tfatws era

[alirhi]

chapter two :)

Title: Winter's Frost Chapter: 2/? Fandom: MCU Rating: R to be on the safe side Pairing: Loki/Bucky Summary: Loki never told anyone the real reason he became so obsessed with Midgard. Much better to let them think he wanted to hurt his brother than draw their attention to the one thing in the universe that makes the God of Mischief truly vulnerable.

WARNINGS: m/m, in case that wasn't obvious. probably some swearing. I rarely do explicit sex but it might get to that point, depending on if the mood strikes me. If you're under 18, just go away XD Notes: taking advantage of the muse while I've got it lol. I should be working on actual books but... Loki took over my brain [EDIT] I rewatched CW after writing this chapter and realized there was no snow XD everything was green. Clearly, they were in SoCal, not NY. I'm from the Northeast, so I automatically associate December with snow, ice, and all things evil (I hate extremes lol). My bad.

Loki, you've changed.

"I'm fine."

Loki, you've become so unfocused.

"I'm fine."

Loki, are you alright, dear?

"I'm fine!" Maybe, he'd thought, if he repeated it often enough, it might become true. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. He's gone-I'M FINE!

He'd never told anyone about his soldier boy; Heimdall was the only one who even knew Loki was going to Midgard frequently in the early 1940s, and even he didn't know why. Loki had made sure of it. A handy, if tiring trick, to keep prying all-seeing eyes out of his business. The end result of his desire for privacy, though, the price he paid for being cagey, was that when he went back and found himself alone, he couldn't tell anyone what he'd lost.

Bucky was gone. He was gone, and Loki couldn't even share his grief with his mother, because he'd been so scared to tell her about his unexpected, unorthodox love. For a brief few months, he'd found little stolen moments of bliss; a heartbeat, and barely that. He'd known his fragile human love would one day perish, and that he'd never be ready, but even in his darkest nightmares of the war Bucky was facing, he'd never truly thought it would happen this soon.

He was gone, and Loki was left all alone. He couldn't let anyone see his grief, so he showed them indifference. He showed them callous disregard and a flippant sharp tongue that drove them all mad. He could turn to none of them, so he did all he could to turn them away; maybe if they weren't all looking at him, for just a few minutes, he could let himself break and weep for the love stolen from him too soon.

Eventually, he realized he would never have that moment if he stayed on Asgard. There were simply too many prying eyes, and not enough holes to hide from them in. Though it tore him to shreds to even think it, he snuck away back to Midgard for the first time in decades.

The spot he'd chosen was meant to be deserted. A snowy woodland road in the middle of the night, he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be there. It was perfect, really. Except that it wasn't actually deserted.

It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing as he approached the two vehicles. One was an automobile, its front end smashed against a tree and in flames, with two silent, unmoving passengers. The other was a motorcycle, and that really confused him. Who would ride around so exposed in this kind of weather?

Movement caught his eye, and for a brief, foolish second he felt relief. Someone was helping the unconscious pair in the car-no. Someone was walking away from them.

Someone unnervingly familiar. "James?" It couldn't be! He'd died in that bloody war! Even if he hadn't, humans aged rapidly; he'd be an old man, barely able to move, much less choke the life out of a woman, which Loki's brain oh-so-helpfully had just processed, belatedly.

This man, who looked like Bucky but wasn't, had just murdered someone right in front of him. Loki wasn't even sure if he cared. He was too stunned and confused to feel much of anything.

The man didn't respond, but he did march straight up to him. At first, Loki thought they might have a conversation – perhaps this was a relative of Bucky's, wondering how Loki knew his great-great Uncle or some such?

No. He was getting rather tired of being wrong. Perhaps Odin was right; he was unfocused, off his game. The man's icy metal fingers were wrapped around his throat before he'd fully processed what was about to happen.

Without thinking, Loki smirked and taunted, "Straight to it, then? It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"What are you talking about?"

That voice! "It can't be...!" Eyes wide, Loki broke his own code and slapped a hand onto the man's fluffy head. It couldn't be Bucky, after all, so reading his mind wasn't betraying the man he loved.

The mad, nonsensical scramble that flooded his mind nearly made him faint. It was like a long, distorted scream tearing through his head. They both let go of the other and stumbled back, not-Bucky looking stunned and confused, and Loki barely able to think straight through the pain and confusion.

One word slowly made its way to the surface out of the din: HYDRA.

"What is HYDRA?" He was still clutching his own head, willing the world to stop spinning at such an alarming, nauseating rate, when he heard the other man's voice again.

"Hail HYDRA." It was soft, monotone and automatic, as if he wasn't even fully aware of what he was saying. Even with that haunting lack of emotion, that voice was too familiar.

Loki had to know what was going on. Bracing himself for another onslaught, he gripped the man's head with both hands and focused with all his might. The static nearly overwhelmed him, but the images slowly made their way through. Capture, imprisonment, torture... Trauma and anger and diving right back into the fray. Falling. Pain. Delirium.

"You will be the new fist of HYDRA."

It finally clicked, and he threw his arms around Bucky – yes, Gods, it was Bucky! HYDRA. He knew that name! That was the organization within the Nazi ranks that Bucky had been fighting against.

"Oh, James! What did they do to you?"

He was so caught up in trying to piece it all together from his love's suppressed memories that he was completely unprepared when Bucky shoved him back, and he fell right on his ass in a snow bank. Indignant, he hopped back to his feet and started brushing himself off, but paused when he found the barrel of a gun in his peripheral vision. With his patented arrogant smirk firmly in place, he informed him, "That won't kill me."

Bucky looked confused, and the gun wavered. Then, for a split second, Bucky – his Bucky – was back and Loki was folded tightly in his arms. They held each other like a lifeline, smashing their lips together in a fierce kiss that left them both breathless.

"Loki?"

He smiled through the haze of tears suddenly blurring his vision, a choked laugh that was more than half-sob escaping him as he ran his hands through that ridiculous long hair over and over again. "Yes. I don't know how you're alive, but I am so grateful!"

"Run!" Eyes wild, Bucky pushed him back, more gently this time, but with far more urgency. "'No witnesses.' Loki, you have to run! Now!"

"What?"

"Get out of here, before I figure out what will kill you!"

"I don't understand..." The machine. The final piece fell into place from Bucky's scrambled memories, and filled him with rage. The reason Bucky's mind was so screwed up, the reason he wavered even now and the dull, robotic look returned to his eyes; they'd figured out how to control him. They'd stripped away his free will and left him a shell of himself, able only to obey their orders.

He could see the internal struggle as what was left of his Bucky fought against the mindless soldier. Hoping to mitigate that as much as he could until he could free the other man, he assured him through clenched teeth, "Do what you have to, Sergeant. Survive. I'll take care of the rest."

The look of profound confusion, of a little lost puppy, was heartbreaking. Bucky was trying so hard to stay himself, to not harm him. Watching him suffer was more than Loki could bear.

"I'll return for you," he swore as he slipped back into the shadows. "I'm going to burn it all down."

______________________________________________________

Next Masterlist

[weaponizedembrace]

Okay, this is what’s in my drafts. Let me know if I missed anything you want to continue. Also let me know if you’re no longer interested in continuing any of these; no hard feelings. I know some of them never got a chance to really develop. <3

No particular order, just how I got to them in my drafts. I liked ones that were newer/hadn’t developed much and specified my muse and verse...

TO ANSWER:

@crimsonscorpii - Cabin escape (Steve, post-CW au)

@benevolentgodloki -

Compound Blues (Bucky, Avengers Tower au)

@whitesuited - (might move to Discord?)

coffee date (Steve, non-specified verse)

packing for a trip (Steve, non-specified verse)

@nerdybirdboy (and asst. blogs) - I already talked to you about yours, so no need to reply, but for myself:

house guest (Buck and Bruce, au)

verisimilitude (Tim and Buck, au)

sticks and stones (Nat and Buck, pre-CW era)

I suck at titles (Nat and Steve, WWII)

ANSWERED:

@agecfmiracles - this reply (Steve)

@araedi - Seeing NYC (Steve)

@benevolentgodloki​ - Loki Finds a Smol (Steve) & Locked out of the gym (Bucky)

 @fallencomrade - a gift from hydra (Steve)

@nerdybirdboy (and asst blogs): unknown uncle (James and Buck), target practice (Francis and Buck)

ARCHIVED: If you see this and wish to un-archive anything, I’m happy to. Just lmk!

@ofcrimsonenchantresses -

x Letter To A Soldier (Bucky, 40s au)

x I Trust You (Steve, CW era)

@brokcnsouls - x this ask reply (Steve, 40s)

@silvertongued-trickster - x this starter (Steve, Avenger au)

@timeforgcd & @forgcdasset-

x this reply (Bucky, non-specified verse)

x this answered ask (Steve, non-specified verse)

@justicetempered & @facemypast (I see you’re on hiatus so no pressure) -

x rescuing Bucky (Bucky, WWII au)

x target duplicate (Bucky, au)

@loyatyworn -

x this reply (Steve, non-specified verse)

x And this one (Steve, post-TWS au, I think)

[zimniyxprizrak-a]

continued from HERE.

𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶 !!! ⋘ 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙰𝙸𝙽𝚂 𝙷𝚈𝙳𝚁𝙰 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚃 ⋙

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ "Woah, woah- Hey, Soldier." Brock pressed the back of his head against the wall, keeping his gaze locked on the other. He grinned, swallowing hard. "Feelin' frisky today, aren't we?" Brock's expression hardened and he nodded to the Soldier, "Alright, freezerburn, back the fuck up-- You know you're out'a line."

𝐈𝐂𝐘 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐈𝐌 , a momentary reaction after an error coming out of cryo. It wasn't completely unheard of , but it hadn't happened in some time. His hand gripped the large knife , the blade pressing only slightly down on the skin of his Handler's neck.

His grip loosened on the knife , and eventually dropped it , and stepped back from Rumlow , hardly a hitch in his breath in the process before standing at attention , awaiting whatever repercussions came from someone eles's error.

@skullsandsteel.

[thestuckylibrary]

Group Ask 126

What is a group ask?

Previous Group Asks

AO3 Search Tutorial

Please send us an ask stating which group ask and which person you are replying to. Thank you so much in advance!

Anon 1 said:

hi! maybe you can help me find a fic that I can’t for the life of me remember the title of; Steve is transported into an alternate universe while fighting hydra. He’s a comic book artist and in a relationship with Bucky and the only way to get back is to be choked (?). Thank you!

Anon 2 said:

Hello! I'm looking for a fic where shield brings bucky in before the events of tws so he's there by steve's side when he wakes up in the future. thanks for everything you guys do!

dragonflybeach sent in Sforzando* by Odsbodkins (complete | 14,570 | E ) *Bucky/OMC ; past Bucky/Natasha

Anon sent in Ice Man by WanderingAlice (oneshot | 4,851 | not rated)

Anon 3 said:

Hey, I hope ur having an amazing day!!! I'm looking for a fic, I remember it was Cap!Steve and Modern!Bucky, but Bucky was SHIELD and Fury sent him to babysit Steve in the new century? Bucky had the metal arm and he was a veteran, and lost his memory a few chapters in, because he fell from a train during a mission? Do you have any idea what that could be? I'm losing my mind going through all the tags haha, thanks for an amazing blog!

whitewolfbucky, dolphinqueen10, Anon and idjits-and-balls sent in Easy Work For Easy Pay by AustinB (complete | 45,718 | M)

Anon 4 said:

Do you guys no of a fic where Bucky is like a villain/criminal that is always getting the slight upper hand on CapSteve? I remember it was a humorous story and the first meeting Steve gets tied up somehow and Bucky taunts/flirts with him. Thank you for all your hard work!

dolphinqueen10, kittybrownjs and Anon sent in No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Pine by galwednesday (oneshot | 16,466 | T)

Anon 5 said:

Hey guys! I would like one find this fic where Steve confesses to Bucky and Bucky is like... oh? I love you too but it's kinds unrequited for a while? Steve cries but then he like starts to go out and Bucky also helps edit steves tinder profile but by then he's already jealous of steves partners? And he also tries to seduce Steve of his birthday by giving him a blowjob? I honestly remember the whole thing but I can't find it it again ;(

whitewolfbucky and dolphinqueen10 sent in haha, jk* by relenafanel (oneshot | 13,523 | T) */others 

Anon 6 said:

hi can you help me find a fic? it reminds me of water under the fridge except bucky is the plumber and is employed by steve's landlord, after fixing stuff in steve's apartment they have semi-regular sex, at one point steve says something that makes bucky think steve looks down on his job/ashamed of "sleeping with the help" & there's angst/pining, in the end steve apologizes and they make up, i tried searching all the plumber/handy man related tags i could think of and i cant find it

forevermorexo sent in Intensification by ameonna (zetsubonna), melospiza (orphan_account) (oneshot | 7,634 | E)

Anon 7 said:

Hi could you please help I've searched the tags and AO3 and I can't find this fic where Steve as Cap meets military!Bucky (I *think* he's retired but I can't remember) and ends up spending a lot of time with Bucky and the Howlies. Only other details I can remember is that Steve ends up accidentally just hanging out constantly with the Howlies in their apartment. Thank you so much!

getstucky sent in Rescue Me and Hold Me In Your Arms by 74days (oneshot | 6,793 | T)

Anon 8 said:

Hey, I've been trying to find this fic i lost. In it Steve works at a coffee shop and Bucky works at stark industries. Instead of being small and skinny or being muscular though, he was small and fat. It was adorable and if it helps, i remember that Clint and natasha were dating, and it had 16 chapters. Thanks!

Anon sent in Sweet as Honey and Just as Pretty* by LeisurelyPanda (WIP | 131,408 | E) *brief /others

Anon 9 said:

Hiya! I’ve been looking for a fic everywhere (using as many tags as I could) but couldn’t find it. I don’t remember the name of it or the plot, just that it’s a modern/no-power au. What I remember is that Bucky and Steve are roommates and Bucky thinks Steve is straight until he sees a man leaving Steve’s room. Stucky is endgame tho! Do you think you could find it? Cheers mates!

Anon 10 said:

hello! i'm looking for a fic that was in outsider pov, post-cw where steve & bucky ran away. the pov was from an elderly woman's pov and she didn't realise it was them until she saw the news on tv? have been looking through the outsider pov tag and couldn't find it :/ thanks!

musings-on-bucky-barnes sent in The Season for Plums by whatthefoucault (oneshot | 2,027 | T)

Anon 11 said:

Heyy! What you do is amazing! I was looking for a fic where Bucky is jewish and very religious so he can’t be with Steve bc he’s not (I think there was kind of an arranged marriage but idk) thank youu

Anon 12 said:

Hi! I’ve been looking for this fix for a really long time, but I can’t find it. Steve is rescued earlier tha he is in the movies and then he find Bucky, who is the winter soldier, I think because he tries to kill someone. I believe they keep him in Howard’s basement and at some point Bucky writes down his trigger words and gives them to Steve and the Howling Commandos and I think Gabe reads them out loud to everybody.

Anon 13 said:

I’m having trouble finding a fic, all that I remember about it was that Bucky and Steve were in a relationship post WS where Bucky could only have sex with Steve if they were in a rape fantasy role play. At the end the avengers walk in on the two of them and think that Bucky is actually raping Steve and Bucky has a freak out that he really hurt Steve and slipped back into the WS. Can you help me find it?

paper-storm, teenwasteland, Anon and dolphinqueen10 sent in Lamb and Martyr* by Dira Sudis (dsudis) (complete | 39,589 | E) *HTP, graphic violence, heed the tags

Anon 14 said:

I’m looking for a fix and I’ve looked through everything so I’m coming here as a last resort. Steve is an artist and I remember one part where Bucky goes to one of his gallerys and all the paintings are sold except for one of Sarah and one that was him. I think they were childhood friends or maybe exes or something. It also might’ve had Brooklyn in the title or something.

Anon 15 said:

Hi, I'm looking for a Stucky fic where they are staying together but not a couple. Each night Steve's inner alpha makes him sleepwalk into Bucky's room.

[tiberiusmadhouse]

while i get my theme fully sorted

RULES

First and foremost: THIS BLOG IS MUTUALS ONLY.

READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED, there will be dark topics on this blog. My dark muses are Hydra!Steve Rogers, Hannibal Lecter, and Lucifer Morningstar. Each of these are a mix of media and my own hc, if something makes you uncomfortable either ask to tag or unfollow.

odm stands for On Deck Muse, which will be the ones I’m feeling it for when I reblog the meme. You are, of course, welcome to send in for anyone on the blog, but if they’re not in the tags it may have to wait depending. 

Anon hate will be deleted on sight and go unaddressed. 

Do not ask for tags on anon, I will not judge you for asking to tag. We are both here to let our creative force loose on the world. I will not publish the ask, or respond to that, but I will DM to let you know that I got it as I keep the ask in my inbox as a reminder. 

All icons used are my own, I capped, I cropped, I coloured. I can make a zip file of my caps if you want to make your own. Do not take the icons themselves. 

Smut on this blog is not under a readmore. again, reader’s discretion advised, unless my rp partner’s blog does so then I comply with their format.

TOPIC: THREADS/DASH

Replies are spastic as fuck, I apologize for that but this is not my only blog. A lot of things get queued, but if I’m not here then I’m not here. 

Each post has my old url on it, so if you don’t like the muse you can block the tag and not see it. Having a multi muse blog is easier for me because I don’t have to bounce from blog to blog to blog to (echoes into infinity) to reply to my friends. 

I am trying to gather up all my old verses from ages back, but that’s going to take time as well as finding a good page for each characters dossier. But each thread has a tag for your muse and mine. example: anthony threads ; steve so if you’re looking for a reply start there. 

Whatever your preference on icons it’s your preference and I have mine. You do not need to feel the need to use icons because I am. 

TOPIC: MUN

I work an extremely stressful job, replies are going to sometimes be slow, and sometimes your dash is going to be filled with the most random crack threads. 

My writing preferences run dark, and I will try to make sure I tag things as cw [insert reason here]. Example: cw gore, cw gaslighting, cw abo. Again, either block the tag or unfollow. You have every right to be comfortable perusing your dash. 

[thiscrimsonsoul]

RP Wish List!

{ out of paprikash }  Okay, people... My dash is full of talented writers tonight and I'm just sitting here wanting all the AUs, all the crossovers, and all the canon re-dos I can stand. So here’s a wish list comin’ at you. If you’re interested in doing any of these things, either reply to this post or come into my ask/messages!

Wanda & Marvel Characters / Settings

I need more threads set between the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. Particularly ones that deal with how she handles Pietro’s death, how she gets to know each of the Avengers, how she adjusts to life in America, etc. There’s a huge emotional, cultural, and psychological gap between Ultron Wanda and CW Wanda that I am itching to explore.

Evil Wanda. I just kindof need it. Maybe Pietro died during the Hydra experiments and she just stopped giving a shit. Or maybe the stress/trauma of the experiments made her mentally unstable and crueler. I would love to explore a disenchanted, cold, rogue Wanda, whether she’s ultimately redeemable or not.

Batshit crazy Wanda, heh. Maybe she doesn’t deal mentally very well with Pietro’s death. Or maybe she has been unknowingly deteriorating mentally over time the more she used her powers (like a tradeoff kind of thing where each time she uses her powers she sacrifices some of her sanity) and reached some kind of breaking point during CW or IW. Maybe she lost her mind trying to bring back Vision or, unable to bring back Vision, she invented her own version of him using her magic. Whether treatable or not, insane Wanda is something I would like to explore. 

Wanda & Crossover Characters / Settings

I need Wanda in a zombie apocalypse. Any Resident Evil fans out there? Replace Hydra with Umbrella and add zombies and mutated creatures and there you go, heh. I need it.

Wanda in a Silent Hill setting... Would the town trap her? Would it ultimately let her leave? What kinds of things would the evil in the town try to get her to confess to/admit to herself? Who might she get stuck there with? Lots of dark secrets could come out in a thread like this, I love it, ugh.

Other Muses of Mine & Marvel Characters / Settings

Okay fans of characters like Groot and Pickett... I have an adorable fandomless fantasy leafling OC that will absolutely ruin you with his cuteness. His name is Jix, and he can make just about any character smile. He’s a ball of energy and exudes positivity, even in the more dire of situations. He’s also addicted to fruit. Big time. I would love to see him in an Avengers setting, doing just about anything with anybody, I just need it. His blog is @xleafyheartx​, and if you want to see what he is like, I wrote a thing between him and Wanda here. People with Marvel muses, please hmu if you would like your muse to interact with Jix!

I need Nemesis from the Resident Evil and RE: Apocalypse movies (so originally a human named Matt Addison) to either interact with Avengers muses in a crossover setting during a zombie apocalypse, or in a Marvel setting... maybe one in which he was experimented on and turned into Nemesis by Hydra instead of Umbrella. He’s a lot like a hulk who can’t ever change back into a human, except much scarier looking... and with tentacles. But free of Umbrella’s/Hydra’s control, he’s really just a big puppy who wants to help people and loves cookies. I’m not kidding. Chocolate chip are his favorite. His blog is @freewillacquired, and if you would like your muse to interact with him, let me know!

[sapphicscholar]

CW for canon typical violence. I’ll be off with family for the next several days, so I’m posting this update a little early. It’s nice and long - hope you enjoy! Chapter Text: “Ready to avenge Jocelyn’s death?” Maggie asked. “What are you talking about?” Sam growled, stepping out her front door and shutting it carefully behind her. “You know as well as I do what it means.” “Did Lillian send you? You and your girlfriend feeding her information now?” “Not even close,” Maggie scoffed, letting out a bark of a laugh. “Look, you’re coming with me no matter what. So there’s only one real question left: do you want to help bring down the woman that you know—I know you know deep down—killed your wife?” The way Sam lunged at her, the fact that she was pressed up against the brick wall of Sam’s house with a hand hard against her throat, barely fazed Maggie; she’d dealt with worse. “You can’t know that. Superman killed her.” “Yeah…found some old footage—the way she died? None of it looks like Superman’s doing. But it looks an awful lot like what happens to organisms infected with that early prototype of Project Hydra. Ringing any bells?” Maggie taunted, too far gone to listen to her own self-preservation instincts. “Fuck you.” “I’m offering you the choice one more time. Come with me and see just a little bit of justice done. Or don’t. You’ll still come with me, of course, just without any memories of doing an ounce of good in this world to sustain you while you rot behind bars for domestic terrorism. Or maybe intergalactic terrorism if some of these leads pan out… You wouldn’t believe what Lillian’s gotten up to using your name…” Maggie had their positions reversed and Sam face first against the rough brick before she could think to hurt Maggie in any real way. “Who are you?” Sam growled. “The woman who’s about to put Lillian away once and for all.” She felt the moment Sam’s muscles relaxed ever so slightly, the moment she stopped fighting her grip with all her strength. “I want a deal.” “I imagine so. Your little friend Victor already spilled every dark secret he knew, though, so you’ll have to dig deep.” “What do you mean?” “You remember Officer Haught, don’t you? Cute redhead, hung out at the bar you frequented? Well, seems Victor got a little too friendly chatting with the bartender…ya know, the fine officer’s girlfriend. Said just enough to warrant an arrest, and then he cracked just like that,” Maggie finished, snapping her fingers, a smirk playing about her mouth. “Maybe I don’t have many secrets left you don’t already know from Victor and your little girlfriend,”—Maggie winced at the term, biting back her emotions at the glimmer of suspicion in Sam’s eyes—“but I can help in ways you can’t even imagine. I know how Lillian thinks. I know what it’s like to go up against her in a fight, and you know as well as I do she doesn’t fight fair. You’ll need someone on your side who won’t either.” “I’m listening,” Maggie said, her voice low and her words measured. “If I help you bring her down, you don’t go near Tasha. She doesn’t get prosecuted—now or in the future. Her name isn’t dragged through the press. She’s safe.” “Wait, what?” “You heard me. If you want my help, Tasha walks free. This was never her fight.” Maggie considered it for a moment. Tasha had never been one of her main targets, and they didn’t have too much proof of her involvement outside of aiding and abetting. “Deal.” --- Within the hour, Sam and Maggie were sitting side-by-side in the back of the Kane Agencies helicopter soaring fast enough that even Maggie felt a little unwell. After years in the military, Sam looked relatively at ease. Or as at ease as could be expected when she’d been greeted with a subdermal tracker being shoved into her shoulder and handcuffs being slapped on that wouldn’t come off until they got to the long abandoned factory down at the port where their intel indicated Lillian should be. Sam had cooperated, given them as much information as she had about Project Medusa—an alien virus designed to wipe out almost every species living on earth—and Kane Agencies was able to confirm Sam’s suspicion that Supergirl was not only powerless, having solar flared thanks to Project Helios, but had also been taken hostage. “So where’s your girlfriend?” Sam asked, dropping her head back to rest against the padded wall of the helicopter. “None of your business,” Maggie snarled. “Does she know you’re not Maria?” “You don’t even know whether or not I’m Maria.” “You’re not.” Maggie just shrugged. “They called you Sawyer.” “And?” “So Cat—you already arrest her? What’d you do, cuff her while she slept?” “It’s not like that.” “So she’s on your side?” “I don’t know, okay!” Maggie snapped, rubbing at her temples as she dropped her head into her hands, willing the pulsing tension headache that had been building all day to disappear. “Interesting,” Sam mused. “Think we’ll see her at the raid?” “Probably,” Maggie admitted, figuring there was no use hiding the information now that her cover was blown and Sam was as close to in custody as she would be until the fight was over. “But she’s not going with you.” “No…she’s probably already there.” A flicker of something like guilt, something like pain, flashed across Sam’s features before she schooled her expression back into one of indifference. “Better hope she’s still alive.” Maggie just gritted her teeth, refusing to give Sam the satisfaction of seeing that she’d made her worry, though she called up to the front and asked if they could fly any faster, feeling a sense of satisfaction when they lurched forward. --- “Danvers,” J’onn snapped, stepping in front of her to block her path. “You are not going in like this.” “Like hell I’m not,” Alex growled, pushing her way past and grabbing yet another weapon to strap to herself. “I am your superior officer, Agent.” J’onn rarely pulled rank, and it drew Alex’s full attention to him for a moment. “You go storming in, guns blazing and emotions high, you won’t leave alive, and that’s a guarantee. You think Kara would be proud of that? If she makes it, but you don’t, do you really think she could live with herself?” “She always knew it could end that way—will end that way, even if I live to 90.” “Not like this, Alex.” His voice was softer now. “We’ll get a team together, go in with our wits about us. Lillian isn’t going to kill her hostage before she’s put her plan into effect. She wants everything to work exactly the way she planned it.” “How can you know that?” “If your sister has taught me anything, it’s that sometimes you have to believe, to hope. And, dammit, Alex, I’m giving us the best shot we have.” Alex nodded, swallowing harshly. “I get to pick my team.” “I expected nothing less.” “Lucy’s back, right?” “She is.” “And I want Vasquez to have eyes on the team at all times.” “Of course. And I’ll be right beside you.” “What? No,” Alex scoffed, snapping out of her single-minded focus at that. “Medusa will kill you, J’onn.” “You were ready to die to save Kara.” “That’s different.” “How?” “I…I’m human! Death is—it’s something I’m always prepared for, like it or not. You two—you can do so much more good here than I ever could. You should have so many more years, centuries, in front of you.” “I resigned myself to dying many lifetimes ago, Alex. I let one family die; I won’t let it happen to another—not without fighting right there beside my girls.” Choking back a sob, Alex wiped at her eyes, desperately trying to drive away images of J’onn and Kara’s lifeless bodies, followed by a vivid memory of the stricken look in Maggie’s eyes when she left, guilt gnawing at Alex at the thought that she might have doomed her too by deserting her. --- That night, Maggie crept through the alleyway, a gun pointed at Sam’s back and a team of operatives behind her. She wondered if Alex knew she was coming, wondered if Alex would even realize it was her with the helmet and the tactical gear. The thought that it might already be too late for Alex to know or realize anything was one she couldn’t entertain right now, couldn’t even allow space to in her head. It wasn’t until she spotted the DEO team assembled, until she saw Alex’s telltale profile, that she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. The anger at the woman for leaving didn’t dissipate, but it barely seemed to matter in the face of overwhelming relief. --- “Kane Agencies is here now, ma’am,” one of the newer agents informed Alex, stepping back to let her see the newest arrivals. She glowered at the sight of Sam. “What the hell is she doing here?” Alex demanded, barking at anyone in the Kane group who would listen. Pulling off her helmet, Maggie glared up at her. “She’s here to fight.” “You can’t know that. I want her gone.” “That’s not your call to make,” Maggie growled. “She’ll have an agent with her at all times.” “Oh really? Who’s that?” “Me.” Grabbing one of her own agents to keep a gun trained on Sam, Alex dragged Maggie a few steps away, hissing at her: “What the hell? Do you want to turn this into a suicide mission?” “Oh, I don’t know, I think you were just fine making it a solo suicide mission this morning.” “Mags—” “Just stop, Danvers. I don’t want to hear it.” “You don’t know that she won’t double-cross you.” “Yeah, it’s pretty fucking obvious I don’t have the best taste in partners, but we don’t have a choice right now, and she’s the best hope we’ve got for understanding how Lillian works.” Swallowing harshly and trying to fight the wave of shame and guilt she felt, Alex nodded head once. “Be safe. Please.” --- Even though it was clear Cadmus wasn’t remotely prepared for a strike team as large as their combined forces, they were ready for interference, and Alex found herself falling into soldier mode immediately as soon as the first round of guards came at them. She had hoped to make it further into the factory before alerting everyone to their presence, but there were at least enough of them that they could split up and cover the ground quickly. Within minutes, they had neutralized the first round of guards, and the ones who weren’t dead were quickly zip-tied, disarmed, and dragged out to the waiting vans for transport back to the DEO’s holding cells until they had their full case together. --- Maggie and Sam swept down one of the side corridors, another pair of agents in front of them clearing rooms as they went. “If there’s an upstairs, Lillian will be there,” Sam muttered, trying to get a sense of the building’s layout. “She’ll want to know what’s going on without being in the fight yet.” “We’re looking for stairs, ladders, half-decks,” Maggie ordered into her earpiece, waiting for any response about possible locations. As they cleared the last room of the corridor, finding nothing but dead ends and booby traps, Kate radioed in: “Southwest corner of the building—there’s a stairwell.” “On it,” Maggie replied, turning to Sam. “Show time.” --- “Fuck,” Alex gritted out, managing to get off a shot despite the searing pain in her leg from where she’d been struck by some sort of weapon—definitely not human in origin—that left what felt like scorch marks across her skin. “Fall back, Danvers!” J’onn ordered, stepping up to take point in the attack, while Lucy drew up to his six. “Like hell.” She crouched into a more defensive position, though, and waited until a round of deadly fire from Lucy and J’onn cleared the room. Taking the moment of calm within the storm to assess her wound, Alex pulled out her flashlight and inspected the newly exposed flesh. “Surface level,” she deemed it. With a bit of gauze and a strip of fabric in place, she nodded for them to continue, and for once J’onn let her have it without objection. --- Peering around the doorway from the back stairwell, Maggie squinted, trying to make out anyone in the darkness. “The end there,” Sam whispered, gesturing to where the hallway split off in two directions. Figuring she’d have to trust Sam and hoping like hell it wasn’t a mistake, Maggie nodded and followed her lead, moving stealthily down the corridor until they got to the corner. “My, my, what have we here?” came Lillian’s voice. --- “Kara!” Alex gasped, rushing toward the hospital bed where her sister was strapped down, her skin deathly pale and her breathing shallow. Pulling out her knife, Alex made quick work of the thick straps, freeing Kara’s hands, then her legs. “You’re gonna be okay, you’ll be just fine,” Alex whispered. “She will be,” J’onn insisted, radioing over to Lucy, who had teamed up with another agent to cover for them, to tell her that they’d found Supergirl. Assessing their surroundings, J’onn gestured to what looked like a makeshift lab. “Alex, look.” Forcing herself to look away from Kara, Alex glanced around the room. “Is that…?” J’onn nodded, prodding at what looked like a rocket launcher. He tried prying it free only to pull back when he felt the way it shuddered, as though the whole thing were unstable. While Alex assessed Kara’s vitals, he called over to Vasquez, relaying information about what they’d found until she had a tentative report. “It’s unstable,” J’onn informed Alex. “The isotope Cadmus used to make the virus airborne—it’s not quite stable. I worry…I worry that if I just rip it open, I could kill us all.” Taking in all the information, Alex gritted her teeth, a look of determination hardening on her features. “Get her out of here,” she ordered, not caring about the chain of command, not caring that J’onn was her director, not caring that it wasn’t her place to make demands. “We have a whole team of agents and doctors here for medical evac, Agent.” “J’onn,” Alex said, her voice thick with emotion as she looked down at Kara’s nearly lifeless form, as she looked at the rocket filled with a kind of poison that would kill J’onn before she could do a thing. “Please. Please, just fly her back to the DEO and stay with her. Stay safe. Keep her safe. And if I—if—tell her I love her, okay?” J’onn looked like he wanted to fight her on it, but eventually he dipped his head in agreement. “I’ll see you back at the DEO, Agent. Consider that an order.” “Yes, sir.” The second J’onn had Kara in his arms, Alex turned back to the task at hand, taking a deep breath before looking back at the dispersal mechanism. “Vasquez,” she called through the radio.” “Yes, ma’am?” “I need all the intel you have. Now.” --- “Such loyal agents,” Lillian scoffed, looking at the two women standing before her. “I know how you treat your agents,” Sam bit back. “Doesn’t exactly inspire loyalty.” “What are you on about now?” “You know exactly what I mean, Lillian—Project Hydra.” “Ah, here I thought you were going to bring up that ancient history again… It’s good to see you finally over Jocelyn.” Sam had a gun out and trained on Lillian before Maggie could blink. “Stop!” Maggie ordered. “Lillian, tell us how to stop it. Tell us how to stop it, and maybe you won’t spend every moment until you die in a maximum security isolation cell.” “Oh, I don’t think that’s how I’ll spend the rest of my life regardless of whether or not I say a word right now.” --- Alex could feel sweat dripping down her face as they came down to the wire. She’d done what she could—done all she could do—had been talked through an experiment without having nearly the right equipment to do it—and now all they could do was wait to see if she’d been successful at neutralizing the virus. Eliza had been on the line with Vasquez, had told Alex she believed in her, told her she loved her, told her if anyone could do it, it was her. And she wanted to believe her, wanted so very much for it to be true. Because if it wasn’t—she didn’t think she could deal with the consequences. “The virus might be neutralized, but that’s still gonna blow, Agent,” came J’onn’s booming voice. “We’re evacuating now. Get out of the building.” “There’s nothing more we can do?” Alex asked, her voice strained with worry. “You’ve done all you can. Now we hope.” “Yes, sir.” With a resigned sigh and one last look at what was essentially a ticking timebomb, Alex turned on her heel and made her way quickly to the exit. Outside, she and Lucy counted out their agents, made sure all of them were accounted for before they left. “Wait. Where’s Maggie?” Alex asked, craning her neck around to look over at the Kane Agency team. “I’m sure she’s with her people,” Lucy insisted. “We need to get away from the building now.” “Get everyone loaded into the vans. I’ll be there in a second.” While Lucy began herding everyone in, Alex jogged over to the Kane Agency team. “Did Sawyer already get out?” “Not yet,” someone—she didn’t know who, didn’t care who—told her. She stopped listening after that, turned back to Lucy before they were done speaking. “I’m going back in for her.” “Alex, no—I’m not gonna let you risk your life like that.” “I have to.” “You don’t. What would you tell any one of your other agents? You’d say that they should trust their people to get out. She’s smart and well-trained—you’ve said so yourself. Trust her.” “It’s not about trusting her or not, Lucy,” Alex insisted. “It’s—I’m not abandoning her twice. I need to be there for her.” Ignoring the sound of Lucy’s calls after her, Alex forced her way back into the building, calling over her radio to get Maggie’s last known coordinates. “Southwest corner,” came Kate’s voice. “There’s a stairwell—that’s where I sent them.” “Got it, thanks.” “Be fast, Agent.” And Alex couldn’t be sure, but it sounded an awful lot like pride, like gratitude, in Kate’s tone. She took off running toward the back corner of the building, flying up the stairs two at a time and hurtling down the corridor, skidding to a halt at the sound of gunshots and a muffled cry of pain. --- “Admit it!” Sam shouted, clicking off the safety of her gun. “Admit you killed her!” “What good does it do you to know?” Lillian asked, her voice smooth and deep. “What good would it do you to kill me?” She lazily pointed her own gun over at Maggie. “An eye for an eye justice, does that help? Not that you’ll escape either, of course. The whole place is rigged with explosives set to go off when Medusa launches,” she shrugged. “No proof, no jail time,” Maggie deduced, glaring at the woman and wishing she had heat vision. “Mm, yes, look at that baseline competence.” “I need to know,” Sam insisted, edging closer to Lillian. “Will it bring you solace in your final moments alive?” Sam said nothing, just glared, her body shaking with anger. “I did what I had to do. Maybe she’d still be alive had you learned to do the same.” Maggie and Lillian both saw the moment Sam’s finger curled around the trigger. Time seemed to slow down as the first shot went off, followed closely by Lillian’s fumbling with her own gun. Before Lillian could get her shot off properly, though, Sam was on her, grunting as the bullet found a new target in her stomach. “Maggie,” Alex gasped, rushing around the corner, her heart pounding her chest as she forced herself to look at the damage. But Maggie was still standing, holding a gun and looking slightly dazed. Sam was slumped over Lillian, dark red blood pooling beneath them. “Is she…?” “I think so,” Maggie answered, helping Alex to carefully move the bodies. “Lillian’s dead,” Maggie announced, her fingers against her neck, feeling for even a weak pulse. “Sam’s alive. But I don’t know for how long.” Tearing off her outer layer, Alex balled it up and held it against Sam’s stomach, trying to stem the flow of blood. “We need to get out of here. Now.” “Let’s just call in a med evac.” “No—you don’t understand. The whole building’s about to blow. I sent most of our teams far away.” “Alex, what the fuck?” Maggie gasped, even as they stood and began shuffling down the hallway, Sam held up between the two of them. “Why did you come back?” “I left once, Maggie. I don’t ever want to make that mistake again.” “That’s touching, but stupid,” Maggie grunted, struggling to hold Sam aloft as they stumbled down the stairs. She didn’t dwell on the fact that she’d never had someone who would care enough to come back for her. Hell, her own family left her out in the cold. And here was this woman she’d known for barely a few months who was willing to throw herself into the line of fire just to make sure she made it out alive. “Oh shut up.” “We better make it through this so I can tease you about it forever.” “Forever, huh?” Alex teased, her laugh cut short as the first explosion rocked the stairwell, and they nearly fell the last few steps. “Come on,” Alex urged, trying to run as best as they could while keeping pressure on Sam’s gunshot wound. Another explosion shook the ground beneath them, sending the room a few yards in front of them and to the left up in flames. Alex choked on the smoke, trying to shield her eyes from the dust of the crumbling walls. The feeling of something larger that seemed to shake the foundations of the whole building sent a surge of adrenaline through Alex. Grabbing Sam and throwing her over her shoulder, hoping the pressure of her own body would work as a makeshift compress for a minute, Alex ordered, “Clear the way!” Understanding the urgency of the situation, Maggie charged forward, diverting them down a side hallway when it became clear that the second explosion had made it impossible to get through the main corridor, crumbling concrete strewn across the way. Her lungs burned with the sheer amount of smoke and dust she had inhaled, and her eyes were watering, but she kept running, yelling encouragements when she could finally see the entrance. Just a few feet away, Alex felt the ground seem to lurch beneath her as the rocket went off with a loud boom that echoed in her ears, followed by a series of smaller explosions that left walls crumbling all around her. Before she could give up, overwhelmed by the dead weight on her shoulder, the smoke filling her lungs and clouding her vision, the wound still burning at her thigh, and the exhaustion that seemed to seep deep into her bones, she felt a warm hand reaching out for her, curling around her waist and dragging her out of the building. --- When Alex woke up, she panicked for a moment at the heavy weight on her shoulder, flashing right back to the last moments she remembered. “Hey, you’re okay,” Kara whispered, carding her fingers through Alex’s hair and hitting the button to page one of the DEO’s doctors. “You’re good. You’re alive.” “And you? And Maggie?” “We’re both alive. She’ll be happy to see you up. She asks about you every time she wakes up.” “Oh god, how long have I been out?” “Not long—maybe ten hours.” Seeing the look of confusion on Alex’s face, Kara explained: “They gave her some pretty heavy duty painkillers…she keeps falling asleep then waking up half an hour later desperate to know where you are.” Alex felt warmth bloom within her chest as she looked to her side and saw Maggie passed out in the bed next to her, gauze wrapped around her bicep, bruises and scrapes all across her upper body, and a brace on her wrist, but otherwise looking safe—alive. “It was actually pretty cute,” Kara admitted, shrugging and nodding in Maggie’s direction. “She insisted on getting up to take your pulse herself each time. Of course, she was too drugged up on the pain medicine to actually know what she was doing, so she just put her ear to your heart until she decided she had heard it beating.” “I wish I could have seen it.” “Don’t worry—Lucy and I took a video.” “Oh shit…” “Yeah, she’s about ready to kill you—since you’re alive and all.” Alex groaned, dropping her head back to the pillow and wincing as it seemed to send pain radiating through her skull. “Got a pretty good whack to the head in there… You should probably be careful.” “And you?” “Human…for a few more days. Lots of lounging in the sunbed in order.” “I’m so sorry, Kara,” Alex apologized, tears prickling at the edge of her eyes. “I should’ve—god, I could never have forgiven myself.” “Hey, you did what you had to do. You had no way of knowing.” “But if I had…I could never have lived with myself.” “Oh,” came a quiet sigh from Alex’s side. “Maggie! You’re awake!” “She’s your sister.” “Yeah… Kara, this is Maggie. I think you met, but you’re a little loopy still,” she teased. “No, no,” Maggie insisted, her eyes slightly unfocused but her tone certain. “Your sister—she’s Supergirl.” “Congratulations, you just won yourself so much paperwork,” Kara snorted. “That’s why you left.” “I’m gonna…yeah,” Kara trailed off, motioning for the door as she quickly excused herself, figuring she could hurry the doctors up on her way out. “I’m really sorry. I just—” “I get it. I, well, I heard the speech. When it was my life on the line, you came for me too.” “Of course. I love you, Maggie.” “Totally getting soft on me,” Maggie teased, even as she felt the warm “Maybe a little.” “How are the patients doing this morning?” one of the DEO doctors asked. “Little banged up,” Alex admitted. “But alive.” “That you are, Agent Danvers.” Alex stayed fairly quiet as a team of doctors and nurses checked her vitals and Maggie’s, deeming them both okay but in need of quite a bit of rest and relaxation. “Hey, um, what about Sam?” Alex asked. Despite everything, she’d still saved Maggie’s life. J’onn strode in then, dismissing the doctors. “She didn’t make it,” he told Alex, his voice low and soothing. “Oh.” “You should be proud, though—both of you.” “She still died,” Alex scoffed. “Yes…but you bought her enough time to make her peace. She got to talk to Tasha, even told us where we could find everything she had on Lillian.” Alex nodded, careful not to shake her head too much. “Still believed in Cadmus, though?” “To her last.”

[menatiera]

My 2017

My fics masterlist:

According to my Ao3 statistics, I’ve written slightly more than 100K in this year! :)

Still alive - Winteriron Big Bang story - 62K The Winter Soldier escaped from Hydra, and on the run, It needs a Mechanic to maintain the very efficient weapon attached to its body. It decides the best person for the work is the world's best weapon expert: Tony Stark. Abducting him goes unexpectedly well. Then, complications come. with awesome art by araydre and neutralchaos, check them out!

Command me to be well - Stucky Scary Bang story - 17K Prompt: "Necromancer Steve is going to anger management because every time he gets pissed off dead people start crawling out of the ground." That's it, that's the story. A creepy tale involving zombies, therapy, and - yes, you guessed it right - love. Beware of treating death as a joke. (But hey, for a necromancer...) Artwork is by Brooklyn_bisexual.

My roommate is a monster... really?! - Stucky Scary Bang story - 8.7K "Steve makes sure his breaths are deep and even as he listens to Bucky's footsteps. He's barely made it to their dorm room when Bucky's screams started. He almost made the huge mistake of waking him up, but he stopped himself the moment he touched Bucky. He was pretty sure Bucky wouldn't appreciate teethmarks on his forehead." Sharing a room with your childhood best friend in college is great. Even if one of you is a war vet with only one arm, and the other isn't exactly run off the mill either. This should be a funny piece. Written for the Stucky Scary Bang. The wonderful Arania made a beautiful piece of art to accompany this fic.

Inktober ficlets - starkspangledwinterhawk drabbles Day 12: Instrument (Ao3 / tumblr) - 1K Day 7: Confusion (Ao3 / tumblr) - 1K Day 6: Water (Ao3 / tumblr) - 1.3K Day 5: Fallen (Ao3 / tumblr) - 0.5K Day 4: Compliment (Ao3 / tumblr) - 0.8K Day 3: Warmth (Ao3 / tumblr) - 0.8K Day 2: Barefoot (Ao3 / tumblr) - 1.3K Day 1: Searching (Ao3 / tumblr) - 0.7K

Avenging the galaxy - Pod_together ficlet - 2.7K „All right, everyone! Assemble!” Cap called them with a shit-eating grin. „Time to continue playing!” The Avengers already had a succesful table-top RPG campaign where they saved the world as the Guardians of the Galaxy. The second game seems to be as much fun as the first. The amazing podfic is by Opalsong, who jumped into place in the last minute and made magic!

Little ficlets and drabbles: Calidoscope - gen - 1K The first Avenger and his best girl (also superhero) - Steggy shorts - 3.8K In the end we'll find our happiness (or fight for it) - Stony shorts - 1.7K

And here comes my summary of the year :) Fandom things in the beginning, personal stuff (under the cut) in the end.

I fell this hard into the Marvel fandom in the summer of 2016. I've always been a fangirl, but with other stuff earlier. I can't remember the exact thing that hooked me - I have some recollection about a Bucky CW meta, but not sure -, but one it catched my attention, there wasn't a thing in the world able to stop me. I started in hungarian, but the base is almost nonexistent, so... I've started to read english fanfics that fall. It was hard because I haven't practiced my english knowledge since high school, and I've never been particularly good in it anyway. But I've read A LOT, and I got better...

Fast forward: in the beginning of 2017, I made this tumblr blog (thanks for my helpers @saturnabouttomakelove and @cabeswaterfoxes), and in February I wrote my first english drabble. It was garbage, of course, and nothing original, and I struggled with the language so much... but from time to time I tried to write a drabble or one-shot, because I needed to be a 'maker' to feel myself part of the fandom.

I think I had a great development by now, and I hope to have it as well in the future. There are many people who helped me a lot through hard times or with problems I had, and I appreciate all of them and all of their work! I won't try to name everyone because it would be longer than this whole post, but I hope you all know who you are - thank you!!! If we talked even just a few words during this year, then my heartfelt thank you is yours as well, my introvert heart beats for you in gratitude.

The remaining stuff is the personal part, so it's under the cut for the ones interested, but skippable for everyone else.

I can't resist the opportunity to summarize my last year either, so here we go! I had a good run in mostly every sense of the word. Okay, I had my ups and downs and rough areas, sore spots and stuff, but in overall, I think I did good.

I spent 9 out of 12 months with therapy (and only not more because my therapist changed jobs so she had to quit, sadly), and I learned and achieved a lot.

I am still happy with my bf. He's my complete opposite, but he supports me all the way, happy for my successes, encouraging even in things he can't and won't understand or like. I love him dearly.

I moved out from my parents and in together with my sis, which is not ideal, but way better than staying there in a place that I felt toxic. (And made me ride public transportation 3-4 hours each day. Now I have to ride only around 2-2,5 hours. Improvement.) She got two cats, which means I have them as well, and they make me so, so happy. They might not sit in people's laps or love anyone unconditionally, but they have unique and beautiful personalities and they care with us. They try to cheer me up when I'm upset (and they're in the mood for it, of course), they demand attention, they play, they... oh, and they're also beautiful :)

I met wonderful people. I joined a Marvel club, which is awesome. I still feel out of my element most of the time with them, I still don't have that 'I belong here' thing. At some parts it's rational since I don't do cosplay like the rest of them, or since they know each other longer than I. But on the other hand, it's fully irrational and I have to work harder to not only realize they accept me, but also feel myself accepted, and to not let my insecurities ruin this social thingy for me.

I participated in GISHWHES, and had a mostly fun time with it. (Again: my insecurities can fuck themselves because they try really hard to ruin things for me, but I'm battling them actively.)

I met with wonderful hungarian fangirls and -boys in an awesome fandom camp, which meant 4 days of games and fun to me. (Kudos and acknowledgement to the hard-working organizers!) It was the best 4 days of my summer.

I did Nanowrimo as an ML which means I had the opportunity to met all my wonderful wrimos either personally or online, get the honour to help them out, to organize events for them, and in return I became part of the best community I've ever seen, people who understand each other deeply and support each other even more - including me. I'm the luckiest for being part of that. (And also, I’ve written 50K in a month. Yaaay!)

But above all, first and foremost, I'm grateful for meeting my soulmate. @cpt-winniethepooh, you are a truly amazing, awesome person, sunshine in my life. I can't even say how much your friendship means to me. And also, you became my beta, my muse, my best fandom friend as well, and the fics I've written this year mostly happened because of you. I'd be so lost without you. You make me a better person and a better writer as well, you help and encourage me in every way and form, and I want you to be part of my life until we're old and grey. (So, you'll have to meet my bf, and you might as well mean this as a threat. :D) What could I say? Thank you feels not enough, but that's the most I can offer. Thank you for being amazing, for deciding you want to be amazing next to me, and for letting me see the moments when you don't feel amazing at all. (Don't worry - you still are, even during those times.) Thank you, my beloved darling.

And you, dear readers and mutuals and friends, thank you for bearing with me, for following my tumblr and reading my fics, for being awesome and enthusiastic and kind and all.

Keep going in 2018! :)

[mcutrio]

Truth Revealed (CW) [14]

Truth Revealed (CW) [14]

Tags: @buckys-little-monster @imaginesofeverykind

A few months later, Tabitha had finally moved past the fact that Bucky had left. It still stung to think about but on the odd occasion, they were allowed to maintain contact, as long as their connections were kept off the grid.

Today was one of those few, rare occasions.

“Hey, how’s Germany?” She questioned immediately, a little cheery.

Bucky looked dull and bored on the other end of the video call. “It’s quiet. Weather’s nice, foods good, but… yeah, it’s quiet,” he sighed, his eyes wandering off to a point on the wall where the wallpaper peeled. “I just wish we could’ve found some place a little less…”

“Bland?” Tabitha offered, folding her arms and leaning closer to the webcam.

“Cockroach-ey,” Bucky corrected with a grin. “I can’t complain. It's isolated, it’s got everything I need. Well, except one thing,” he added innocently.

Tabitha frowned in question, “what’s that?”

Bucky shot her a thousand-watt smile. “You, of course.”

“Well, hopefully, you’ll be able to come home soon,” Tabitha sighed, placing her head in her hands, squishing her reddened cheek against her fist. “Everyone’s been so on edge lately. Especially Kat and Steve. I think there’s something going on between them,”

“What?” Bucky questioned, his voice racing an octave in surprise. “You mean, romantically?”

Tabitha jerked her head. “No! God, no, I just mean… well, they just don’t seem to get along. I don’t think Kat likes him very much; she get’s all weird and defensive around him. Whenever myself or Courtenay try to have a conversation with him she… pulls us away,” she said, eyes drifting down to the keyboard in thought before she looked back up at Bucky again. “I don’t know, it’s probably just paranoia,” Tabitha mumbled, her voice lowering.

Bucky, knowing the deal with the trio of girls and Hydra, nodded knowingly. “I’m sure once it’s all over with it’ll pass. Or, you know, maybe she just doesn’t like him. He’s a hard, righteous pill to swallow,” he joked.

“He’s not that bad,” Tabitha mused, before bursting into laughter at the sight of Bucky cocking his head to the side. “Okay, maybe he’s a little over patriotic. But America is a very small complex world. He’s just a soldier out of time,” Tabitha said.

“So what does that make me?” Bucky asked, a smirk indenting his stubbled cheek, shaded by a khaki baseball cap.

“Well you’re a soldier--”

She was suddenly cut off when Steve burst into the room, looking urgent. She whipped around, staring at the super soldier worriedly, his intense arrival causing instant panic.

“What’s going on?” She asked, pulling out one of her earbuds.

Steve glanced at the hologram screen of a frowning Bucky before he looked back at Tabitha and straightened his posture. “Rumlow’s been caught on CCTV hijacking two Stations in Nigeria. He’s circling and he’s armed with Military grade weapons,”

“Casualties?” Tabitha asked.

“Forty,” Steve answered, swallowing.

Tabitha’s body flushed hot with adrenaline, “so, what do we do?”

“We’ve got to go after him,” Steve said, “you’ve got five minutes. Wear something… inconspicuous,” Steve nodded, turning his back and leaving the room.

Tabitha’s gaze lingered on Rogers before she stuffed her earbud back in and looked at Bucky anxiously, a trace of remorse there, too. “I gotta--”

“It’s okay,” he brushed off sincerely, “go kick ass, beautiful.”

She broke out into a smile. “Thanks so much, Buck. I’ll see you soon!”

The call ended and Bucky’s face zipped away from the screen. Tabitha stood to her feet, wondering what exactly Steve meant by inconspicuous. She eventually decided on a pair of black skinny-jeans, a purple tee tied into a knot at her belly-button, revealing her piercing. She tugged on her knee-high converse and a leather jacket, then joining the team at the quinjet. Kat looked just as plain; wearing ripped jeans and a cropped-vest top underneath a black denim jacket. Courtenay, however, wore her leather trousers, pulled taught with a red belt and accompanied by a matching black vest-top encased with a corset, exposing her midriff. Over the top, she wore a trench coat decorated with blue and red on the hems and buttons. She wore her new shades and improved earphones; courtesy of Kat and Tony. Her guns were strapped to her thighs and knives were stashed in her boots.

“I thought we were going inconspicuous?” Tabitha said, raising a brow at her friends get up.

“I’ve got a plan,” Steve said, allowing the conversation to be shut down as he stormed through the two girls and made his way onto the jet beyond them.  

“What’s with the trench coat?” Sam questioned, adjusting his wrist cuff as he walked towards Courtenay.

The girl looked almost offended, “because trench coats make everything better,” she told him, straight-faced. Upon noticing Sam’s judgemental face, she pulled up her trench coat, “don’t make me thwap you. I’ll do it,” Courtenay joke-threatened, and he held his hands up in defence. With a nod, she dropped the trench coat and allowed it to flow around her legs again.

“Everybody ready?” Nat asked, slipping on a pair of Aviators and taking a glance at Courtenay. “Very subtle, I like it.”

“Thank you,” Courtenay responded.

Nat smirked, “shall we?” She gestured forwards so that the girls and the twins would board the jet. They did this so often it felt like routine at this point.

Everybody strapped themselves down into the seats for taking off, allowing Steve to pilot for the first few minutes of flight before he put it into autopilot mode having inputted the coordinates. He turned back on the swivelling chair, standing to his feet to address the team.

“Nat, Kat--”

Courtenay snickered at the rhyme, though Steve was unphased.

“--Wanda, Tabitha and Pietro; I’m going to need you guys on the ground,” he reported, clasping his belt affirmatively. “You’re going to be our eyes and ears. Courtenay, Sam and I will take to the rooftops, and we’ll be ready to attack whenever you call the shots.”

“What’re we going up against?” Court questioned, kicking her legs up onto the table in front of her.

Steve smiled, “I’m glad you asked,” he said, “you’re learning.”

Court stuck her finger up at Steve with his sarcastic remark, suggesting that she was only just grasping onto the basic skills needed for this type of work.

“We know they have heavy weaponry,” Steve nodded, “we’re not sure if they have any enhanced on the field,” he nodded, looking towards the twins, “but we’ll need to keep our eyes out. We don’t know what Rumlow’s got up his sleeve.”

Kat stared at Steve, her gaze hard and strong on his. Over the course of the few months, she hadn’t seen the grandmaster again, so she was left to assume that it was simply a hyper realistic dream that she had, otherwise she’d drive herself insane pondering over that night. However, she couldn’t help but think that perhaps the Grandmaster and his bag of tricks were a real issue. It was almost of if someone was playing tricks with the trio of girls as it was; Thor was gone, Bucky was gone, Kat was near terrified of the super soldier, and Rumlow was returning… it all seemed like a big, horrible stew that was put onto extra slow-cook, but it was nearing its end.

“Are we clear?” Steve suddenly spoke out, drawing the girl from her thoughts. She nodded slowly, her teeth still clenched as she looked off into the distance. Upon feeling Steve’s eyes on her, she looked down. “Take these,” he said, a handful of earpieces in his palm. Courtenay took them and passed them around, having no need for them herself given Tony’s handiwork on her new and improved earphones that allowed for both music and communication.

“You ready for this?” Court asked Tabitha. The pair were strangely confident, though extremely psyched with the fear of seeing Rumlow again. Tabitha was happy that she felt somewhat calm about the situation, but she had a horrible, irking feeling that it was all about to crumble the moment she laid eyes upon him. He had the power to turn the three girls into a bunch of puppets at the snap of his fingers… or, rather, electrical shocks and impulses.

“Yeah, I think so,” Tabitha nodded, her eyes glancing between the team members. “We just have to take him down. It shouldn’t be hard, right?”

Court shrugged. “I’m shitting bricks if I’m honest,” she admitted with a shaky sigh, rubbing her hands together. “I’m trying really hard to focus but it’s like I can hear and feel everything right now,” she let out another uneasy breath, “it’s all gonna go tits-up, right?”

“Maybe so,” Tabitha squeezed Courtenay’s hand comfortingly. “But we’ve prepared for this. I mean,” she lowered her voice suddenly, “the man trained us. He wanted us to be better than anyone, and I mean, he kind of succeeded,” she let out a laugh, “look at us! We can fight like Nat and talk trash like Sam. I mean, Jesus, you can’t miss a shot. Rumlow and his thugs got nothing on you.”

Courtenay felt a tug of a smile, “thanks, Tabs.”

Two hours later, the team hit the ground in the scorching-hot town of Lagos, Nigeria in a private landing quarter. Kat yanked a black cap over her head, her eyes narrowed as they made their way through the streets. Courtenay scanned the area, her glasses taking in data and information. It was like a second mind for her; although she had a fantastic memory, sometimes the pieces were so all over the place that none of it made sense, given that her brain ran at a million miles a second. The glasses were like her second mind.

“How about a coffee?” Nat rose her brow, nodding at Steve as he took off in a different direction with Courtenay and Sam. Under her breath, she said, “stick to different tables. We’ll have a better chance at spotting them with different angles.”

“I don’t like coffee,” Kat inputted with a smile, to which Nat nodded and lead the three girls into the café. They ordered their drinks, varying from coffee to hot chocolate, and took their seats at different outdoor tables, though Kat and Tabitha decided to stick together.

“Everybody in position?” Steve questioned, voice quiet through the comms and everybody confirmed in response. “Alright, what do you see?”

“Standard beat cops, small station. Quiet street,” Wanda reported. “It’s a good target.”

“There’s an ATM on the South corner, which means…”

“Cameras,” Pietro inputted, leaning over his table as he shot glances towards the street.

“Both cross streets one way,” Steve reported.

“So, compromised escape routes,” Kat said, taking a sip of her drink as she remained shielded from the public eye.

“Means our guy doesn’t care about being seen. He isn’t afraid to make a mess on the way out,” Steve sighed, “you see that Range Rover halfway up the block?”

“Yeah, the red one?” Wanda asked. “It’s cute.”

“It’s also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us,” Natasha added, leaning her elbows onto the table as her eyes narrowed behind her Aviators.

Wanda shot a smile towards Tabitha, “you guys know there are people on the team that can move things with their mind, right?”

“Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature,” Natasha told her.

Sam, up on the rooftops, smiled to himself. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a little paranoid?”

“Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?” Natasha joked.

“Eyes on target, folks,” Steve said sharply, “this is the best lead we’ve had on Rumlow in six months. I don’t wanna lose him.”

“If he sees us coming that won’t be a problem,” Courtenay remarked, saluting at Sam from a rooftop across.

“Yeah, he kinda hates us,” Sam responded.

Steve narrowed his eyes, watching as a garbage truck rammed its way through the streets, grazing past cars and narrowly avoiding the pedestrians carelessly.

“Sam, see that truck?” Steve asked, “tag it.”

Sam responded accordingly, commanding Redwing, a hover bot, to zoom through the streets and nestle itself underneath the garbage truck to keep track of it.

“Give me x-ray,” Sam said. His Redwing bot responded by spewing information to Sam who frowned at the results. “That trucks loaded for max weight, and the drivers armed.”

“It’s a battering ram,” Kat realised, becoming alert.

“Go now,” Steve commanded.

“Why?” Wanda asked, sitting up a little straighter.

“He’s not hitting the police,” Steve realised, which is what the team had earlier assumed. Sam caught a hold of Courtenay, shooting off into the distance as they had planned. Steve ran through his building to gain access to the streets whilst Pietro grabbed his sister and ran ahead, a blur of colour following him. Kat and Tabitha nodded to one another, breaking into a sprint through the streets.

“So much for inconspicuous,” Kat huffed, taking in the damage that the truck had caused when it flipped over the basic defence towards the biochemical centre before herself and Tabitha leapt into action, watching as men poured out from within hostile orange trucks.

She reached forwards, her fingers streaming out purple ribbons of energy that swam through the air in energetic coils, disarming the men of their guns and wrapping around their legs like violet snakes. They became immobile as she seeped through their eyes and gaping mouths, triggering their mind so that they collapsed into an unconscious heap on the ground. She retracted the energy, jerking her hands back as the energy coursed through her like a shot of electricity.

“Body armour, AR-15’s. I make twelve hostiles,” Steve reported.

Sam zoomed into the combat, dropping Courtenay down upon the high-platform where she shoulder-rolled forwards, swiping her dual pistols out of her holsters before simultaneously shooting two thugs down whilst Sam kick-flipped another two behind her.

They nodded at one another in conformation.

“We make eight,” Sam reported, fingers pressed against his here as Wanda drifted in from the horizon, landing poised with a gush of red energy around her feet. She paralysed and lifted another hostile.

“Sam!” She yelled, to which he swooped down and slammed his feet into the thug's chest, knocking him on his back.

“Seven,” Sam corrected, sauntering into the middle of combat and pressing buttons on his wrist cuffs, programming Redwing to analyze the buildings for heat signatures and tag the hostiles. “Rumlow’s on the third floor,” Sam reported.

Kat approached two hostiles from behind. She swept her leg underneath the man to the right, knocking him onto his belly before kicking the second man in the jaw and then in the chest with brute force, where he lifted into the air before being slammed into one of the trucks that became indented with his body upon impact.

“Make that five,” Kat said, glaring at Steve as she moved past.

“Tabitha,” Steve called out, gaining the girls attention as she tore through yet another thugs mind, leaving no trace of his identity or his memories behind. “Just like old times.”

Tabitha grinned, readying herself. “What about the gas?”

“You and Wanda work on getting it out,” he nodded, taking off into a sprint before leaping into the air, where he was then projected further as Tabitha surged him upwards and through a glass window on the third floor.

Pietro shouldered past, uplifting and knocking over three more men that approached on the South side of the building. He worked on getting the citizens to safety, ensuring that any rampant bullets fired did not hit their targets.

Wanda and Tabitha worked together, pulling and draining the gas from the building like they’d pulled the plug on a bathtub, smashing the windows as the thick, putrid-smelling gas seeped through the air before they compressed it and released it into the clouds, all the while Kat, Courtenay and Sam fought off the men behind them in defense.

“Rumlow has a biological weapon,” Steve reported.

“I’m on it!” Natasha responded, closing in on her motorbike to the Hydra accomplices that ziplined towards their getaway vehicle, a beefy truck that seemed jacked with weapons and bulletproof gear. Tabitha made her way over, accompanying the assassin as she defended her from bullets and proceeded to disarm men. However, she was caught off guard when Nat was caught by the throat, and she became frozen at the sight of Rumlow clasping his hands around her. Tabitha instinctively reached for him, violet streams pouring into his head. However, she fell to the ground upon feeling an agonizing sensation in her head, alongside the horrifying realisation that she couldn’t affect him.

“I don’t work like that no more!” Rumlow responded, throwing Natasha into the truck through its roof hatch and dropping a grenade on top of her like a ragdoll. He jumped from the vehicle, approaching a collapsed Tabitha before gripping her by the hair and leaning towards her. “Is this how you’re gonna treat me? After all this time?” He threw her aside carelessly as the truck exploded and Natasha fell out, coughing. Rumlow stepped aside and loaded himself into the armoured vehicle beside them, lifting a turret out and shooting explosives towards Steve who leaned out of the building in worry upon hearing Natasha’s vehicle implode.

Tabitha sat in an unresponsive heap, her body quivering as the thought of Rumlow’s hard eyes boring into her left her a speechless, shivering mess, though she brushed of Nat’s concern and lifted herself to her feet.

Steve was catapulted from the building after one explosion, his body smashing into a platform below before spinning like a ragdoll to the ground and collapsing into a heap, where Pietro zoomed past and pulled him to his feet.

“Sam, he’s in an AVF heading north,” Rogers reported.

“I got four, they’re splitting up,” Sam shot back.

Steve huffed. “They ditched their gear. It’s a shell game now. One of them has the payload,” he said urgently. Suddenly, there was a thunk and a blip as a grenade stuck to the curve of his shield. Hurriedly, he threw it up into the air where it exploded out of harm's way from the civilians. However, he felt a sharp pain in his back and he was thrown forwards into a market stall.

“There you are, you son of a bitch,” Rumlow grunted, nearing Steve. “I’ve been waiting for this!” He yelled, upper-cutting Steve and sending him rolling into further markets.

Courtenay broke out into a sprint alongside Kat, who both closed in on the men on the right as Natasha announced she was on the tail to the men on the left. They managed to take their men down and immediately searched their bags and gear, to no avail.

“We’re empty!” Court said, and Sam immediately pulled up his arm to drive Redwing to Natasha’s location, knowing that the men she was after would be in possession of the biological weapon.

“Payloads secure,” Nat reported, having been saved by Redwing interrupting the conflict between the assassin and two mercenaries. 

“Thanks, Sam,”

“Don’t thank me,” he singsonged.

“I’m not thanking… that thing,” Natasha retorted.

“His name is Redwing.”

“I’m still not thanking it.” Nat denied.

“He’s cute; go ahead, pet him,” Sam teased.

Meanwhile, Brock and Steve continued to go toe-to-toe, though Rumlow had the super soldier near cornered with his enhanced weaponry that allowed him to hit with extra strength. However, Steve managed to hit Rumlow in his weak spots from beyond his armoured getup.

Despite this, Rumlow pinned Steve against the wall.

“This is for taking one of my own,” he seethed, a knife shooting out from within is arm-guard as he slammed his fist forward, near missing Steve’s head as it planted straight into the wall behind him instead. Given that Rumlow had his arm stuck, Rogers managed to disarm him of his weapon so that only one arm was capable of keeping up with him, giving him the overall advantage.

Kat and Courtenay arrived in the scenario, pushing gently on people's shoulders to make sure that they were out of the market rather than gathering around to watch the big fight. They became paralyzed with fear upon seeing Rumlow, and remained in market stalls, watching from a distance as they pleaded silently for Steve to take him down. Eventually, with a hard spin-kick to the face, Rumlow collapsed to the ground with a heaving breath and pulled himself to his knees.

The two girls stepped from beyond the shadows to help with the commotion, whereas Tabitha, winded and in pain from her earlier ordeal, grasped a tree for support, listened through her earpiece.

Steve stomped towards Rumlow who unmasked himself, catching his breath. Rogers grasped the straps to his vest, yanking him to attention, though hesitating upon seeing the real damage upon his face.

“I think I look pretty good, all things considered,” Rumlow said dryly.

“Who’s your buyer?” Steve demanded, uninterested in further conversation.

However, it was clear that Rumlow had other intentions, given the glint in his eye as he took a brief glance towards the two girls.

“You know your pal, your buddy, your Bucky,” Rumlow began, coughing, “he’s not the only winter soldier.”

“What did you just say?” Steve questioned, his jaw tight and threatening.

“There’s another winter soldier. In fact, three of your new affiliates are former Hydra weapons,” Rumlow grinned, and a flash of realisation ran across Steve’s face as he shot a sharp look towards Kat and Court, who stood frozen and speechless. Brock then turned back to Steve, grinning. “I trained them myself. But Kat… she was my favourite,” he cackled, “you took one of my own, Steve.” He repeated, making the words that he had said against Steve so threateningly suddenly make sense.

Kat felt her stomach turn to ice upon his words. The horrifying presumed ‘dream’ suddenly made sense, the threat of her parents and why the other two members of her trio seemed to assume that she wasn’t treated as harshly… Rumlow favoured her not for her abilities, but because she was his daughter.

“Turned my own flesh and blood against me,” Rumlow seethed, “I’d never tell her. I was too scared that she’d become attached and live to see the day that I die,” he gurgled, his eyes turning from somewhat fleeting to hard and cold. “It’s only a shame she’ll have to watch you die alongside me.”

At the very moment, Rumlow reached for the button attached to his hip, Courtenay lunged forwards, taking a heat and shock-wave combo attack that had her flung forwards whilst Wanda just about caught the explosion, crunching down the force that had her hands quaking and her mind thundering with pressure. In exertion, she lifted it into the air, though her hands lost control and Rumlow’s body slammed into an office building, exploding three floors upon impact.

If not for the sudden devotion, Steve may have lunged at the three girls in fury, questioning them as his trust in them crumbled in his fingers. However, his concern was elsewhere.

“Oh, my g-” he breathed, eyes wide as he held an unconscious Court in his arms, though stared up at the building. “Sam… we need… fire and rescue-- on the South side of the building. We gotta get up there!”

Pietro, who just arrived with an unstable Tabitha, felt an intense wave of guilt that was shared between himself and his sister who took in the state of the catastrophe with sore eyes and aching hearts, their minds flashing back to how they used to bash the Avengers for this, though now the very thought bled through the tears forming in their eyes.

Kat plucked Courtenay from Steve’s arms, carrying in a way that she did not affect her friend's injuries. Kat’s eyes were pooled with tears as her chin quivered, and she locked eyes with Steve for a moment and felt nothing but an intense, fuming rage, alongside a sharp spike of fear that told her that this man could not be trusted.