She clenched her jaw, looking away angrily. This mad man, it was him all along. He had killed most of her crew, he had forced her to kill numerous innocent people and this whole time, she blamed the doctor.
'I'm going to make you pay for doing this to me,' she whispered in a deathly quiet voice, holding so tight to her swords her knuckles were going white.
He scoffed. 'You'll never beat me, I taught you how to use a sword, I taught you everything you know.' She ignored him, launching herself forward, her swords swinging furiously as they clashed with his.
'You didn't teach me everything I know, but you did teach me how I'm going to beat you!'
She blocked the swing of his blade with one of her swords, striking with the other across his thigh, before spinning away and catching his shoulder.
He stopped and looked at his thigh, before glaring at her, to which she smirked challengingly.
He lunged forwards again, bringing his sword down on her, she blocked it but it was a stronger strike than she had thought, and she faltered slightly. He took the opportunity to kick out at her, knocking her backwards and as she tried to right herself, spinning around to put her hands on the ground, he slashed her across the back of her armour with his blade, slicing the elastic that held her ponytail.
She hissed in pain as the blood began to seep from the back of her neck where the armour stopped at the top of her neck. She tried to recover herself, her hair cascading around her face.
Red walked forward, setting one foot on one of her blades and grabbing a handful of her hair, yanking it backwards so she looked up to him He ripped her armoured face plate from its place across her eyes, throwing it away. 'I envisaged this differently.' He bent down, capturing her lips in his roughly.
His kiss was savage and she felt sick, trying to pull away, but he wouldn't let her. So she lifted the one sword that was loose, stabbing him through the foot that held her second sword. He snarled angrily, releasing her hair so she was able to pull away finally.
When he stepped away, she swiped her sword upwards wildly, slashing off the straps of his body armour. It fell to the floor with a resounding thud and she spun away, poised and ready to defend.
She felt the back of her neck aching, not just from the large gash there now, but just in general. She had not long recovered from being under the control of the device, and her body ached all over from the strain of maintaining long term combat.
'You ungrateful bitch!' he roared and ran at her. She braced herself for his attack, her arms felt the jarring force of his strike as his sword clashed with hers. She held him there, refusing to submit to his brute strength.
He leaned his head forward, sneering at her. 'I am going to beat you, and I am going to re-administer your device, then I am going to make you hunt every last one of your little friends like nothing more than your prey.'
Vielka felt her rage build to new heights, as she remembered attacking her friends the last time she was under his control, seeing their faces confused and fearful as she struck at them. And then, it was like she finally hit the point of no return.
Her mind went blank, her body reacted of its own accord. She stepped back, pulling her swords away from his and allowing his sword to follow through. It bit into her shoulder as it swung through, but she ignored the pain.
She swung her own sword once and he lifted his sword in time to block it. She swung her other sword, he tried to block it too, but she moved with such speed and strength as her rage broke through, that her Vibranium blade sliced through his with a resounding clash.
She then spun, bringing both swords around to slash across his chest, before spinning both swords to change her grip of them, lunging forward and plunging both of her blades deep into his chest.
He stood frozen, a look of utter shock and disbelief on his face as he stared at her.
She glared at him, bringing her face closer to his, staring straight into his eyes, seeing the flash of fear through them. 'You will never lay a hand on me or my friends, ever again.'
She reefed her blades from his chest, watching as he collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from his body, making gurgling sounds as he still tried to comprehend what was happening.Bucky ducked behind a large crate as he tried to get a shot in on Crossbones.
He wore a massive powered suit, it stood at least twelve feet in the air and was fitted with rockets, energy cannons as well as some kind of shield that they were struggling to break through.
Their weapons seemed to be doing nothing to stop the machine, though, that was not what they were trying to achieve.
Scott was currently trying to break into the suit and destroy its power source, but he needed Crossbones distracted.
Bucky waited for Falcon to be clear before he took a few more shots, trying to draw Crossbones closer to him.
'Hey guys, we've got a problem,' Scott called out through their radios, sounding as if he was getting thrown around a bit inside the suit.
'Not what we want to hear, Scott,' Steve shouted back as he dove out of the way from a massive, swinging arm.
'So there's two things, firstly, this suit has some kind of active shield, it's nearly impenetrable,' he began to explain as Bucky moved from his cover, firing before diving behind a large piece of machinery.
'Stating the obvious much, Tic Tac?' Sam replied, swooping behind a large piece of machinery to avoid a cannon blast.
'Nearly?' Natasha queried, rolling between the feet of Crossbones and leaping out of the way.
'I've noticed when Captain America's shield hits him, it seems to drop, maybe 3 seconds tops, depending on the force of the strike.'
'Well, that's not such a problem, what's the other?' Wanda asked, using her powers to pull apart machinery and throw it at Crossbones, calling his attention to her. Sam was quick to swoop in and fly her to safety.
'The other is this suits power source seems to be some kind of unstable nuclear based substance. I've got no clue on that stuff.'
'Tony would come in handy right about now,' Bucky heard Natasha mutter under her breath.
Bucky was about to ask for a plan and fast when Crossbones spotted him and fired a cannon at him. He felt himself tackled roughly from his right and sprawled on the ground in a daze for a moment, his ears ringing from the blast as he looked up and saw the large crate he had been hiding behind was now a pile of fire and ash.
He looked beside him and saw Vielka grabbing him by the arm and trying to drag him away from open ground, shouting at him.
'Would you get up, damn it!' He quickly obliged, scrambling to his feet, relieved to see she was okay, although he noted she had quite a few open wounds, a large gash apparent on her right shoulder. 'I'm getting a tad sick of saving your ass.'
He scoffed half-heartedly at her jab at his dispense. 'I'm pretty certain you still owe me one,' he said as they ducked behind shelving, peering around the sides to try and get a good look at Crossbones powered suit.
She looked back at him with a dubious look. 'Hang on, I count two, since when did you do three saves?'
'Did you forget the bear?'
'I didn't really need your help for that one!' she sneered, looking around her surroundings.
'Can we get back to the job at hand here?' Scott shouted, he sounded like he was being rattled around inside the suit.
'I've got an idea,' Clint shouted, firing another explosive arrow that bounced off the shield harmlessly and exploded. 'If Steve can throw his shield and get Crossbones' shield to drop, then maybe we can fire something into that power source and destroy it that way?'
'Yeah, but what is going to be fast enough? We literally only have three seconds maximum,' Steve replied, rolling out of the way of another blast of Crossbones cannon.
'And it would need to be a strong piece of metal to pierce through the protective casing!' Scott shouted. The power source was situated on the back of the suit inside a large square box. The metal casing looked to be quite a few centimetres thick.
'No way,' he objected, firing at Crossbones until the clip was empty before reloading. 'There's got to be another way.'
'I'm inclined to agree with Bucky,' T'Challa commented, before he was hit by a swinging arm finally, flung backwards past Vielka. She quickly grabbed him and dragged him back towards her and Bucky's hiding place.
'Well, unless you two have a better plan, I'm it.' She glanced back at Bucky. 'I'm faster than everyone here, my swords are made from the strongest metal on earth, and I've got a better chance of surviving the ensuing blast than most.'
There were no words spoken for a moment, only the blasts and crashing from Crossbones trying to destroy them.
'I hate to say it,' Steve began, and Bucky immediately loathed him. He himself knew what she said was predominantly true, but that didn't change the fact that he didn't like the plan.
'If we time it right, so that you throw it after I've launched, I'll be able to get through the break in the shield and pierce through the armour casing on that power source.'
'Vielka...' Bucky began to argue, but she threw him a look that instantly had him stop. It was evident, she had already made up her own mind.
Instead, he turned and ran from the shelving straight for Crossbones, doing what he could to distract him. He dodged his swinging arms and rolled out of the way as he brought a large, fist down. It gave him an idea. 'Hey, Scott, how about you wreak some havoc with the hydraulics in there?'
'Ooohhh, I like your thinking.'
Bucky ducked behind another line of shelves, as T'Challa took over distracting Crossbones. He peered around the side of the shelves and just in time, one of Crossbones arms dropped, hanging lifelessly to the suits sides.
'What the hell?' Crossbones shouted angrily. He tried to kick out at T'Challa, and as he lifted his leg, it froze mid kick.
'Ah, sorry, technical difficulties!' Scott shouted, laughing manically from within the suit.
'Why you little!'
'Are you ready, Banzai?' T'Challa shouted as he slid along the floor below Crossbones. Captain America lined up his shot and waited to hear from the female super soldier.
Bucky looked up and saw Vielka easily balancing along one of the supporting beams of the roof, agile as a cat.
She stopped, looking down at Crossbones as his AI system tried to flush Antman out of his suit. He watched as she seemed to analyse the situation from above.
'We need a massive distraction and then on my call, Cap needs to let loose with the shield.'
'Are you sure about this?' Natasha asked, sounding as concerned as Bucky felt.
'Nope, but we've got to try something.' She looked down and met his gaze, offering him an apologetic smile. The dimples appeared in her cheeks and her eyes seemed to smile along with her, before she continued to move along the support beam, following Crossbones as he moved.
He looked to where Crossbones was now trying to swat at Falcon as he flew around trying to shoot at the suit, having rid the suit of Antman's treachery.
Bucky felt himself getting angry again, because of Crossbones, Vielka was now going to risk her life to stop him. It wasn't fair.
He stepped out from his cover and began shooting rapidly at Crossbones, turning his attention to the Winter Soldier. Crossbones laughed as the bullets bounced off his suit harmlessly, as Bucky emptied the clip on his rifle. He threw it aside, instead running straight at Crossbones.
He could vaguely sense that the others were also running towards Crossbones around him. He saw bullets and projectiles headed straight for Crossbones, he ignored them all as he ducked a swinging arm that tried to hit him. He slid across the floor, before standing and punching at the suit. It did nothing, but Crossbones turned to face him again.
'Seriously?' Crossbones sneered incredulously, before hitting him with another punch that sent him sprawling backwards.
'CAP! Now!' he heard Vielka shout.
Bucky recovered himself from where he had been thrown and looked up in time to see Vielka jumping from the overhead beam, grasping a sword between both her hands, as Steve hurled his shield with as much power as he could muster.
They all watched with bated breath as the shield shot through the air, colliding harmlessly with the suits electromagnetic shield, seeing it slightly dim. As it dimmed, Vielka thrust her sword down, putting her full body weight behind it.
There was a blinding light as the sword sunk into the power bank at the back of the suit.
'Take cover!' Clint shouted, grabbing Wanda roughly and shoving her out of harm's way. Bucky and Steve were quick to follow suit, Falcon picking up Natasha as he flew by and getting her to safety.
There was a huge explosion, followed by rushing, burning, hot air that stung the skin.
'The roof is coming down!' Bucky heard Scott shout, making him glance to the ceiling, sure enough, it was beginning to come down.
Wanda and Clint were closest to him, so he quickly moved to cover them, positioning himself so his titanium arm would take the brunt of any debris that fell. He saw Steve do the same using his shield with Scott and Natasha, while Sam used his wings as protection for he and T'Challa.
Steve shook the debris from his shield, pushing his way out of the culvert that had formed around them because of his shield. When he looked out, he could see the beginning of dawn peaking over the nearby mountains.
He looked back down and began to help Natasha and Scott. 'You guys alright?'
Natasha was sporting a cut on her forehead and lip, Scott seemed a bit groggy still from being flushed out from Crossbones' suit.
'I think we're good,' Natasha said, glancing down at Scott as she stood. He took his helmet off and gave a small nod.
'Bucky? Sam?' Steve shouted, looking to where he had last seen his friends.
'We're good,' Sam called back first, flinging his wings wide and throwing debris from them, before folding them back down again. Steve saw T'Challa stand and remove his helmet, looking back at him and nodding.
'Vielka?' Bucky's voice drew Steve's attention to him. He was forcing debris out of his way, Clint and Wanda close behind him, as they made their way towards the last known location of Vielka.
Steve hurried to join them. 'Sam, flyover, see if you can spot Vielka.'
Sam spread his wings and flew as Steve hurried to help Bucky start removing the debris of the building.
'I see the suit, or what's left of it,' Falcon called as he landed in the middle of the debris. Steve, Bucky and the rest of the team hurried to climb over the debris.
What they found waiting had Steve's heart sink, and he could tell it tore at his best friend's too.
Where Crossbones had once been was a charred mess. Debris was strewn all around a large black hole in the ground.
Bucky knelt by the charred ground, rubbing a hand across his face, and Steve rested a sympathetic hand on his friend's shoulder. He looked to T'Challa, he too, looked distraught. Both were the closest of friends with Vielka.
There was movement behind T'Challa, that had him whip around with his claws raised. Scott and T'Challa both cautiously hurried to a small pile of rubble, Scott pulling aside the rubble as Steve moved to stand behind them.
'Crossbones,' T'Challa growled, reaching down and reefing him towards him. His face was bloodied, one eye wouldn't even open it seemed and his body hung limply in T'Challa's claws.
'Heh, what? Were you expecting somebody else?'
There was silence as they all glared coldly at him, Steve saw Bucky edging closer to T'Challa, moving to stand directly behind him. Steve could see it on Bucky's face, it held a deathly glare that made even Steve's blood run cold. He hadn't seen that look in a long time, not since the last time he was under Hydra control.
Crossbones looked around at all of them, before he began to grin. 'I guess she's not so indestructible then.
'
It happened in a split second, Bucky shoved past T'Challa, grabbing Crossbones by the throat with his titanium hand and beginning to squeeze. Steve and T'Challa hurried to stop him, Natasha and Clint pulling Crossbones from Bucky's grasp.
'I swear I will rip you limb from limb!' Bucky shouted angrily. Steve was dumbfounded by his old friend's rage, he had never seen him so angry before, not without being under the control of Hydra. He and T'Challa were struggling to hold him at bay, while Wanda subdued Crossbones with her powers, making his mind wander elsewhere.
'Bucky, stop. He'll pay, the right way, we'll make sure of it,' Steve said, trying to stand before him.
Bucky glared at him. 'He doesn't deserve it.'
'He doesn't, but don't you think there has been enough death at your hands?' T'Challa replied calmly, also moving to stand before him. Bucky stopped struggling and stared at the Black Panther, while Steve inwardly cringed. T'Challa had a bad habit of speaking plainly, and Steve put it down to his Royal status, but sometimes it was just badly timed. 'Vielka would not want you to take more blood at her expense. You know this,' T'Challa continued, not perturbed by the icy stare of the Winter Soldier.
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