[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]

He takes a moment to imagine Fury encountering T'Challa after a deception of this sort, and has to fight hard to keep from choking at the mental image.

"Of course you wouldn't," he says, instead. "I can work up a basic profile for you of what we know about the major players, at least in a general sense. It would help if we had any idea what Fury had her doing, but oh well."

Damn him to hell anyway for interfering with his agent, never mind the current status. They were working on that.

[marvel_npc]

T'Challa hesitates for the space of a heartbeat. "We have some better idea of what she was working on," he admits.

"From what we know, the mission was an extension of our previous attempts to trace and neutralize the illegal weapons manufacture ring."

In other words... precisely what Ross has been working on, by the book, for over a year. "So you can see why I have called you."

[marvel_npc]

"Son of a bitch," Ross breathes. "That bastard. He sent her to Madripoor after the weapons traffickers and lied about it?"

He shoves the rage back - there's no time for it now, although he'll have to deal with Fury later.

"Yes, I can. I'll give you the full debrief, everything I've got. What else do you need?"

[marvel_npc]

"You, if possible," T'Challa says.

"We have assembled two teams for the mission. I would like you to be part of one. Your knowledge of the situation – and familiarity with both the likely players and Agent Carter's methods – would be invaluable."

[marvel_npc]

"I'll make it possible," Ross tells him. "If you're still in Wakanda, it'll be faster for me to meet you there, but otherwise I can rig a few things and meet you in Madripoor."

[marvel_npc]

"We will be leaving as soon as is feasible," T'Challa tells him. "But there is one more stop I would appreciate you making on your way, to pick up the last member of our party."

He glances to the side, Natasha Romanoff nods at him. "I will send you the coordinates of your rendezvous."

[marvel_npc]

"All right, I can make that work." Ross eyes T'Challa with determination.

"You know I've got a perfectly good team as well. I can bring a complement along. No offense to any of your people, god knows I respect you and them, but we don't want another Busan."

[marvel_npc]

"I appreciate the offer," T'Challa says, "but I believe we have it covered."

At his side, Okoye smothers a tiny smile. He barely refrains from winking at her. "I will be in touch soon."

[marvel_npc]

Ross manages to stifle a sigh. It'd be easier to insist if Wakandan technology wasn't so damn superior to almost anything else, not to mention that T'Challa and his people -- including Sharon Carter, dammit -- came out ahead in Prague.

"Fine. I'll see you soon."

As soon as the call disconnects, he's striding down the hall, mind whirling at high speed with all the things he needs to see about before departing.

[marvel_npc]

As the call drops, T'Challa looks back around the table.

"Nakia," he says. "Will you and Ms. Romanoff kindly review Agent Ross' files once they are sent, and determine the best angle for our approach?"

He turns next to Sam Wilson. "We will need an undercover identity for you, as well," he muses, and Nakia nods to him.

"I have a thought," she says. "Leave it to Natasha and me."

"Very well," T'Challa says, and looks at Shuri. "Shuri, we will need to be equipped. Are you ready?"

"Ready," she says, tightly, and looks at Bucky. "White Wolf, it will take a little while to remove the current arm and replace it with the new."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Whatever you need," Bucky tells her. "I'll meet you in the lab."

"I'll come with you," Steve says. "Unless there's somewhere else I need to be, or something else I can do."

"No," says Okoye. "The Dora Milaje and the king's guard have prepared a flyer for us. We will be ready to depart as soon as the Princess Shuri finishes."

"Okay," Sam puts in. "I'll--"

"You'll stay right here," Natasha informs him. "Not only are Nakia and I going to refine things about your cover with you, but you need a little practice in how to be a spy."

[marvel_npc]

"I will accompany you," T'Challa tells Steve and Bucky, and rises, adjourning the meeting.

"We will reconvene at the flyer when it is time."

As the others rise, murmuring, he turns to help Nakia up, gently squeezing her hand in his as they share a silent glance that nevertheless speaks more than any words ever could. "Come, White Wolf, Captain Rogers," he says, when he finally turns away.

"We will see what Shuri has found for us in the lab."

[nerves_of_ice]

He walks along at T’Challa’s side, between him and Steve, as they leave the Citadel and board the train. Only once it starts moving does Bucky cross to look out the window before turning to face them.

“If she’s dead,” he says. “If she’s dead because Fury lied—“

Each word is tightly controlled and dangerously level.

“—-because he lied because of me, I don’t know if I can keep from going after him.”

[marvel_npc]

T'Challa glances at Steve, whose ears are ringing.

If she's dead because Fury lied, he doesn't know that he'll be able to keep from going after Fury. "We can't think like that," he says, instead, as bracingly as he can.

"We have to go on the assumption that she's alive. We'll deal with Fury – however we need to deal with Fury – after."

When they find her alive, he hopes. Otherwise... he shakes his head. "One thing at a time."

[nerves_of_ice]

Steve’ll have his back, he realizes. No matter what.

Bucky clings to the thin thread of sanity, reminds himself that he doesn’t want to disappoint the two men standing here with him, the most honorable people he’s ever known, and claws himself back from the abyss as he draws a deep breath, then nods.

[marvel_npc]

Steve nods back, and breathes an inward sigh of relief.

"So," he says, after a second. "Yelena?"

It's difficult to put as many questions as he wants to ask into one word, but he does his best.

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky sighs.

“She’s a graduate of the same program Natasha went through,” he settles on, aiming for the balance between detail needed and things Natasha might want to keep private. “There was a time, when I was the Winter Soldier… that I helped train her. Them.”

[marvel_npc]

The Red Room.

He doesn't know the details, but he knows that before Nat joined him and Sam, she had gone after the heart of the Black Widow program and taken it down for once and for all. He wonders if this Yelena had been part of it and makes a note to ask Nat, sometime later.

After.

For his part, T'Challa looks interested. "She must be formidable," he muses. "I have seen Ms. Romanoff in action. I look forward to meeting her sister as well."

[nerves_of_ice]

“Oh, she is,” Bucky promises him. “It’s not any lack of skill that had me wanting to keep her out of this.”

He shrugs, very slightly, and pushes off the wall as the train slows to a stop. “But Natasha’s right.”

[marvel_npc]

"I'll take all the help we can get," Steve tells him, as they step off the train. "Especially someone with Natasha's level of training."

There's not a lot of good he can say about the Red Room, but the graduates certainly know their business.

The lab, once they walk in, is as close to utter chaos as he's ever seen. Shuri taps rapidly on her tablet as designers and assistants scurry about, packing and unpacking weapons and tools. She waves impatiently as they enter.

"Come," she says, all but dragging them towards the medical suite where Steve can see a brand-new vibranium arm, gleaming black and muted gold, lying in custom-fitted foam. "This way."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky strides after her, to all appearances ignoring the frantic activity around him, although someone who knows him well can see that he's taking in every nuance. Once they reach the medical suite, he goes to stand by the table and looks down at the arm. He glances at the prototype he's wearing, then down at the new arm, and his eyebrows rise.

"You've done a lot."

[marvel_npc]

"We have been working on this for a long time now," she tells him, and directs him to lie down so she can begin detaching the prototype arm. "This design is a culmination of that work."

"Well, it looks great," Steve says, sincerely. He's taken up a position nearby but out of the way, while T'Challa has turned back into the lab proper to direct several attendants with their arms full of items towards the train platform. "Thank you again, Princess. We'd be sunk without you."

She waves him off, impatient as she works. "I should have seen it sooner," she mutters. "That is the last time I will believe a recording sent from Nicholas Fury."

[nerves_of_ice]

He remains perfectly still as he lies on the table, a near-lifetime of training taking over while she works.

"Don't blame yourself," Bucky tells her -- tells them both. "Fury's a good liar."

The acid bitterness in his tone could etch steel.

[marvel_npc]

She nods, but it's tight. She could have seen it, she knows, but she hadn't wanted to watch the explosion over and over, to see her friend go from alive and well to gone in an instant over and over.

"He is," Steve Rogers agrees, from behind her. The leashed anger in his voice is at least a little soothing: he doesn't blame her and neither does the White Wolf, who lies carefully still as her fingers fly over his arm and shoulder joint. She removes the prototype and sets it aside, then begins making the necessary adjustments to the joint itself.

(It's difficult to do this without hearing Sharon's jokes about the things she should add to the design, without seeing the brightness in her eyes each time the White Wolf said it was a little better.)

"I have kept the design simple," she tells him as she works, "but there are several elements that may be useful. An EMP in the palm, compartments which will hide anything from a metal detector."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Thank you." Very quietly. He doesn't even glance at his shoulder as she works, not at first -- but after a moment it's almost as though he realizes he should, and he turns his head to study what she's doing.

"It's kind of elegant," he says, after a moment. "Trying to dress me up, Princess?"

It's the first joke he's aimed for in weeks.