Lady Liberty |1| The Liberty Saga (An MCU Fanfiction)

Chapter Eight: Arnim Zola

A couple of months later, in the January of 1945, the Howling Commandos had returned to the snowy mountains of the Alps. Gathered on a rocky outcrop amidst the peaks, they overlooked a railway running along a viaduct through the ravine—the route of their target. While Morita and Jones worked the radio, listening for the approach of the oncoming train, the others prepared a zip wire.

Well, it was simpler than meeting it at the station.

Together, Elke, Bucky and Steve looked down at the icy slopes they would soon be rocketing over, stood at the edge of the mountain. "Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?" Bucky asked, grimacing.

Beside him, Steve glanced at his expression knowingly. "Yeah, and I threw up?"

Bucky swallowed. "This wouldn't be payback, would it?"

Elke snorted, and Steve, too, was smiling. "Now, why would I do that?"

"It will be fine, bub," Elke assured him, although it was unclear whether she was also trying to assure herself. "It will be fun. Tonight, we will be laughing about it."

Steve clapped her on the shoulder. "That's the spirit."

"We were right," Jones announced, and they all turned to see him and Morita coming over from where they had set up the radio. "Dr Zola's on the train, and the Hydra dispatcher gave him permission to open up the throttle. Wherever he's goin', they must need him bad."

On the other side of the outcrop, Falsworth lowered his binoculars. "Let's get going," he called, "because they're moving like the devil."

Steve attached his pulley to the zip wire and nodded to Bucky and Elke. "We only got about a ten-second window," he told them. "You miss that window, we're bugs on a windshield."

Elke made a face. "Actually, I think I prefer you as the giddy optimist."

Dugan raised a hand as the train appeared through the snow. "Better get moving, bugs!"

The three soldiers lined up, as ready as they were ever going to be. And then, with a cry of "Maintenant!" from Dernier, Steve leapt off the edge into the icy Alpine air.

***

Five minutes later, he gripped Bucky's arm, helping him to climb down into the carriage. They shut the door on the outside, blocking out the roaring air that was deafening them. "Elle get down alright?" Steve checked.

Bucky nodded, catching his breath. "Zola's gonna wish we'd sent anyone else."

Steve snorted, but the amusement was dulled by the adrenaline rushing through them. There was, after all, still a job to do. Steve raised his shield, and Bucky raised his gun, and together they burst through the carriage door...

... to find nothing. No passengers, no machines, no helpfully labelled boxes containing weapons of mass destruction. Nothing but a few old trunks stored in shelving units.

It was enough to raise their hackles. As Bucky headed further in, checking the trunks, Steve headed back in the other direction—and the heavy thud of the door slamming shut alerted them both. Steve slammed his fists against the door, but even for a supersoldier it would have taken far too much time to break through. And time, as the door on the other end of Bucky's compartment opened, was something they didn't have.

Instinct took over, and he shot twice with his handgun, using the trunks to his advantage to shield him as he tried to assess the situation. There were at least two of them, maybe three, but those odds weren't so bad. After all, he might have been trapped in there with them, but that meant that they were also trapped with him.