[616] ground zero for trouble

[daughterofliberty]

"Remember, Nick," she calls, buckling the utility belt of her suit. "I've got years of vacation time saved up. You owe me. After this, I'm taking five whole days in Virginia with Steve, and no one is going to bother us. Right?"

Fury scoffs, and she turns a gimlet eye on him. "Right?"

"Right," he says, holding up his hands in surrender. "Hell, Carter, it's not like the rest of the Avengers and SHIELD aren't around to pick up the slack. Go! You crazy kids have fun. Send a postcard. Let your hair down a little. You've been tense as a wire ever since – "

"I wonder why," she snaps, and he shakes his head. 

"Just saying," he says, as Tony Stark sniggers behind him. Sharon waves them both off, an unruly smile tugging at her mouth.

"I'll check in once I've made contact," she says. "Steve should be waiting for me at the rendezvous."

"Good luck, Agent Carter," Tony says, and she tosses him a crisp half-salute, then heads through the hatch towards the hangar that holds her vehicle: not the Quinjet, not for a mission this small, but the cherry-red convertible that hovers as she enters and taps out the activation code. "Come on, baby," she tells it. "Let's go for a ride."

But when she reaches the rendezvous at Avengers Tower and strides through the door, Steve's nowhere to be seen. 

And, honestly? Neither is the Avengers Tower.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

"Good to see you, Nakia," he says, and looks past her to where Okoye stands, silent and watchful. "You too, General."

As T'Challa apologizes, he shakes his head and starts to reassure him -- only to feel the bottom drop out of his stomach as he continues.

Oh, Christ. No, he pleads with an uncaring universe. It doesn't take a genius to put the pieces together, not when Steve Rogers is standing right there, not when Wilson and Romanoff helped them escape, not to mention Sharon throwing her entire career out the fucking window for them. Why me?

"Goddammit," he curses, exasperated beyond belief. "Might as well get it over with. Where is he?"

[marvel_npc]

T'Challa nods, and looks to the flyer.

"White Wolf," he calls, politely. "Kindly come out and join us."

[nerves_of_ice]

He'd listened to the whole thing, especially Ross's speech, with what would be cautious amusement under any other circumstances. Looks like T'Challa's judgement of the man's pretty accurate - so far, anyway. Even when it's obvious that Ross has figured it out, he holds his position until called.

Bucky ducks through the entrance and comes down the flyer's ramp at a steady, deliberate pace. Wilson's the most obviously tense of them all, his glance flicking back and forth among the others. T'Challa's holding himself with the lazy relaxation of someone who's ready to move, while Steve's standing almost at attention, watching closely. Natasha's expression is neutral, the pure, half-amused look that he knows all too well is a mask to hide her true feelings. Beside her, Yelena glances at her sister and assumes a cool mask of her own.

He walks forward and stops about ten feet away from Ross, picking a spot between T'Challa and Steve without being too close to either, meets Ross's eyes, and waits.

[marvel_npc]

"You're the White Wolf?" It's more than a little strangled. Ross scrubs his hand over his mouth, staring at Barnes. "Goddamn it. No wonder--"

He cuts himself off there and gives Barnes a sharp stare before directing a long, level look at T'Challa, who's clearly trying to drive him insane. "You sure don't make it easy, your highness."

Ross turns back to the man in front of him and sighs. "Okay, first things first. On behalf of the Joint Terrorism Task Force--"

T'Challa stirs, and Rogers comes to attention, and Ross spares a second to hope he'll get it all out before everything goes to hell in a handbasket. "-- I apologize, Sergeant Barnes, for the misidentification that led to you being charged with the crimes later attributed to Helmut Zemo. Those charges have since been dropped."

Barnes blinks in visible surprise, and Ross congratulates himself on keeping a straight face. He lets it hang there in the air between them all before he adds, "Also, thanks for not doing worse than breaking my wrist when you flattened me in the field that day. Everything else that has to do with the Winter Soldier is still a giant fucking mess that we'll have to deal with once Carter's recovered."

[marvel_npc]

"I may be able to help clean up some of that mess," T'Challa tells him, pleased and not trying very hard not to show it.

Everett Ross is a good man. He will listen to reason. T'Challa turns, inviting, and gestures for Ross to join him. "Please, Deputy Commander, walk with me and I will explain our plan... and the White Wolf's presence."

[miss_american_pie]

Yelena watches with interest beneath a haughty expression, betraying her thoughts only once – Ross says Carter and she slides a glance to Natasha, who nods minutely.

So that is the mission. She keeps her eyes on Ross as her thoughts spin. Dead is dead... except for Yasha. For Antonia Dreykov. And now, perhaps, except for Sharon Carter, too.

Ross gives them all a disbelieving look and shakes his head as he goes off to join King T'Challa, and once they've moved to a reasonable distance, Yelena meets Natasha's glance once again before moving to plant herself before Yasha, taking in his long hair, the day's worth of stubble on his jaw, the new body armor, the gleaming arm. She sniffs, affecting a blasé expression.

"I like the new arm," she pronounces, then jerks her head over her shoulder at Captain America, who has the faintly stunned look of someone who expected to be in the middle of a fight right now but isn't. "So that's him?"

She turns to the Captain and purses her lips as she rakes a glance over him. "Alexei says 'hi,'" she tells him. "Even though I told him you were a different Captain America. He thinks he fought you in the eighties."

[nerves_of_ice]

"You'll like the woman who made it, too," Bucky tells her, still half in disbelief at what just happened. Who'd have believed Everett Ross --

-- well. T'Challa had believed it. And he'd been right, at least for now. He'll deal with later when it gets here.

"Alexei?" says Steve, with that particular tone that's like please help me out here, and Bucky finds a small smile.

"Shostakov. The Red Guardian. You won't have met him," he promises Steve. "You were still on ice, no matter who was running around trying to pretend to be you. And he's been in prison since long before you woke up. Or was."

He looks back at Yelena. "Is he still insisting he's 'Russia's only super soldier,' too?"

"Now I know why he never talks," Sam mutters, deliberately clear. "It's because when he does everything he says blows your mind."

[miss_american_pie]

Yelena makes a rude sound and tosses her ponytail, her face scrunching. "Of course. He wears the uniform around the house, working with the girls, it is horrifying. Melina loves it."

She makes a gagging sound and glances away from Yasha, meeting the gaze of the other Black man, who is dressed head to toe in garish colors and seems to be fighting a smile. She drags a look up and down him and nods, approving. "I like your outfit."

[nerves_of_ice]

Sam loses the battle to keep his expression under control and grins at her, bright and exuberant. "Thanks. It's nice to meet you," he says, and Bucky nods.

"Sam Wilson, Yelena Belova. Yelena, that's Sam - don't ask him about the robot bird - and the two women are Nadia and Okoye, and you've already sort of met Steve. Everyone, this is Yelena."

Natasha rolls her eyes. "James, you're still so bad at this." Bucky shrugs. "So? It's better than nothing."

"Don't listen to him," Sam tells Yelena, meanwhile. "You're gonna love Redwing. Everyone does."

[miss_american_pie]

"Robot bird? I want to see a robot bird," she demands, and Sam Wilson gives Natasha a smug look, then taps at a hidden control on his wrist. She starts at the sound of a tiny humming engine, then watches, wide-eyed, as a red and silver drone comes zooming out from the jet they're all standing near.

Another command from Wilson and Redwing comes to hover at eye level, giving her the impression that the drone is taking her measure, and she turns to Natasha, mind made up instantly. "I want one!"

"You can't have one," Natasha tells her, but there's something warm in her eyes that Yelena thinks she understands: to want something, to like something, to decide for herself who she trusts and doesn't, is a gift neither of them will ever take for granted.

Wilson looks superior and nods like he knew this would happen. "Like I said," he says, aiming it at Yasha, "everyone loves Redwing."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky rolls his eyes at Sam, and Steve shakes his head and steps forward before the next bombshell - whatever it is - can hit.

"It is nice to meet you, Yelena," he says, as clear and honest as he's ever been. "Thanks for coming. I really appreciate your help. Sharon's a good friend, and she needs us."

Slim chance or not, the choice to talk about Sharon as if she couldn't be anything but alive isn't really a conscious one, and he sees the way it hits his best friend, the quick, grateful look he gives Steve.

[miss_american_pie]

Yelena nods. "I am here to help," she says, just in case that wasn't obvious, and feels Natasha's hand settle briefly on her back.

"This is Nakia," Natasha says, leading her over to one of the Black women, dressed similarly to Wilson. "You'll be acting as her bodyguard. James will be undercover as the Winter Soldier, guarding Sam's character."

Nakia holds out her hand and Yelena shakes it, firmly. "Fine," she says, and looks at Yasha. "Будет ли беда?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yes." He thinks he manages to keep it sounding matter-of-fact, but he must not have completely pulled it off, based on the way Steve's jaw sets. "Hopefully not too much. But we're going to be among a mess of backstabbing cutthroats who want to each prove they're top dog."

The disdain flickers in his eyes, although his expression remains coolly assessing. "They'll try to poke. We just have to keep our protectees safe without poking back hard enough that all hell breaks loose."

[miss_american_pie]

Yelena looks a little disappointed by the restraints, but nods. "Cool," she says, all American insouciance with a thick Slavic accent. "Sounds fun."

She pats the bag she has slung at her hip and looks at Natasha. "Can I change in the plane?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Yes," Natasha tells her. "Need any equipment?" She glances at James.

Bucky trades a look with her and glances over at where Ross and T'Challa are still talking before he turns to Nakia and Okoye. "Full kit okay?"

Nakia nods, and after a second, so does Okoye, before adding, "But she can't keep it."

"Got it," Bucky tells them, and turns to Yelena. "Come on. Let's get you outfitted. They've got stuff in Wakanda the likes of which you won't believe."

[miss_american_pie]

She makes a face but acquiesces, re-shouldering her bag as she glances at Nakia. "We can go over our cover when I come back," she says, and the other woman nods, looking amused at something Yelena can't parse. She shrugs and follows Natasha up the ramp into the flyer, disappearing inside just as King T'Challa and Ross come back, having apparently hashed out whatever it was they needed to do.

Once inside, she pauses to look at Natasha and Yasha, standing there side by side, and she abruptly pushes forward to put one arm around each of their necks.

"я скучаю по тебе," she mutters, then tears herself away, sniffing loudly and giving them both a bland look. "Good. Let's get ready to kick some ass."

[nerves_of_ice]

"I know the feeling," he murmurs, gently, reaching to touch her hair for a second as beside him Natasha puts her arms around Alyona for a quick hug. He remembers what it felt like the first time to see Natasha again in person, standing there in the Wakandan sunshine; remembers what it was like to see Yelena walk in to the impossible place that they all three know, alive and free. "I've missed you too."

Both of them. He leaves it unsaid, and knows that Natasha will recognize the truth threaded through the words. As Yelena pulls back, Bucky finds a smile, and it's real and warm.

"Okay. I've got a few things for you that I think you'll like."

[marvel_npc]

By the time Bucky comes back with Nat and Yelena, Steve's deep in planning with the others, gathered around a projection map of the neighborhood around Selby's bar that Shuri's somehow called up and sent through for them. He makes room without needing to think about it as his best friend comes up on his left side, and goes right back to the discussion.

They've got a while to wait before nightfall. They'll need every minute.