Retrograde▸bucky barnes

10. Switzerland

Lena hurried out of the coffee shop, her thoughts instantly hyper-fixating on the "mission." It had been since long before the Blip that she had intentionally involved herself with other people's affairs, let alone traveled halfway around the world to meet them. But Lena had long known Joaquín, and knew he would not have called if he thought he could handle things alone. Which made Lena worry for his safety. What had he been doing alone that he now felt he shouldn't?

Just over an hour later Lena was seated between a sleeping old man and a talkative teenager on her way to Switzerland. She wished that she was not seated between them for fear they would see her texting Joaquín as they reached cruising altitude, but it seemed unavoidable.

Torres: Did you get the info I sent you?

Lena: I don't make much of it tho

Torres: Yeah that's all I can send over an unsecured line but from the talk I've heard, these guys mean business

Lena: ah

Torres: that's why i wanted miss sparkly fingers

Lena: miss sparkly fingers does not appreciate being called that

Torres: my bad- "cosmic energy manipulator"

Lena: ty

Torres: lmk when you land i'll have someone pick you up

Lena grinned at the interaction, grateful that even going months without speaking their friendship still fell easily into place. She thought back to when she had met Joaquín, several years before the Blip when she had just arrived back from a decade long assignment in Madripoor, falling into the open arms of S.H.I.E.L.D, now a fully functioning organization.

He had been early in his career then, fresh out of the academy but beyond willing to help her readjust to life in the 21st century that was devoid of the chaos of Madripoor. For years they had remained friends, one of the few individuals she kept contact with and who knew her secrets. Shortly before the Blip he had even been attempting to help her transition fully to civilian life, no longer employed by S.H.I.E.L.D. She remembered those days with a hazy fondness, days where her life was still obscured by decades worth of brainwashing.

Departing from the terminal she scanned the crowd for familiar faces, not expecting to see Joaquín himself waving at her excitedly.

Lena ran to him, becoming enveloped in a bone crushing hug. It was only the second time she had seen him in person since the Blip.

"I didn't realize you would be picking me up when you said you'd send someone," Lena laughed.

"How could I not pick you up?" he said, taking her bag from her.

Night fell quickly as they stopped by a safehouse to drop off Lena's bags and continued to their destination. Outside a large bank an abnormal number of people loitered for this late of an hour.

"We should split up," Lena whispered, turning her head in Joaquín's direction.

"Good idea, but here," he said, pressing an earpiece into her hand.

Mingling into the crowd of people Lena felt a hovering tension in the air, everyone waiting for a signal. Someone in the distance whistled and the crowd moved towards the sound. A figure with flaming red hair was bent on the ground pulling masks from a duffle bag. Lena made eye-contact with Joaquín across the square and he nodded to her as he accepted a mask.

Just as suddenly came the sound of breaking glass from above, and a masked figure landed in the square not a few yards away. The pieces clicked in Lena's head.

"Bank robbery," she whispered into her comm.

"Unfortunately," Joaquín said, appearing by her side after wriggling free from a local officer.

"These guys are too strong," Lena said in the momentary hesitation, watching one fling an officer across the plaza where they hit the wall with a sickening sound.

"Yeah not good," Joaquín said, racing to engage the perpetrator.

Lena internally cringed, not in the mood nor physically in shape enough to engage with anyone that held supersoldier level strength. But she had far more than Torres, who before she could stop him pulled his gun on the man, earning him a quick, painful disarming. As she reached the man, he stomped on Torres's face, causing Lena to retaliate with force.

The man flew across the square as she sent a burst of energy at him, lighting up the darkened space. She stalked after him to where he staggered to his feet far too quickly for any normal human.

Hand to hand combat was Lena's specialty and it would have been a fight easily won had two others not hauled Lena away from the man, grunting in disbelief at the strength with which she resisted. As she struggled she guessed that this band of individuals was not expecting this sort of retaliation in this bank heist - they were not armed beyond what their physical prowesses offered.

With several bursts of energy she managed to free herself, but saw that the situation was grim. She was severely outnumbered. Her suspicions came true as she offered up yet another attack on the existing three, but a fourth hit her hard from behind, knocking her to her knees. In the moment of disorientation the same person sent a hard kick at the side of her face, throwing her into unconsciousness on the cobbled street.

---

When Lena woke up a stern looking paramedic was cleaning the wound on her face and ambulance lights flashed, illuminating the plaza.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said in German, swatting the woman's hand away and hauling herself from the ambulance. She almost stepped on Joaquín who was sitting on the exterior edge of the vehicle, also gently padding his face.

"Dude, you look terrible," she said, flopping down next to him, the disgruntled sigh of the paramedic behind her.

Joaquín looked at her and grinned, "Have you seen yourself?"

Lena lightly touched the side of her face, hissing in pain at the contact and then guessing it would turn several shades of blue and purple over the next couple days. Lena returned her attention to Joaquín, who was on the phone, Facetiming someone.

"Lena, this is Sam, Sam Wilson," Joaquín said, angling the screen at her.

Lena awkwardly waved, "Magdalena Lierens."

"Nice to meet you. Torres was telling me you were there too?"

"Yeah, they ah, got ya boy here real quick," Lena said, elbowing Joaquín in the ribs, "but I managed to hold a couple off for a few moments, but by the time the fourth guy showed up they were too strong-"

"Hold on," Sam said, cutting her off, "the fourth guy? Too strong? How did you-"

Joaquín grinned, "I forgot to tell you Sam, Lena has some ah, extra special powers. I like to call it sparkly fingers-"

"It's called cosmic energy manipulation," Lena deadpanned, turning the screen back on herself, "long story short I have those fun powers and the super strength vibes."

Sam frowned but seemed to note the detail, his brain clearly working to connect the dots of where anyone that could take down a known supersoldier could come from. There should not be any other living supersoldiers.

"You don't think he could be a-" Joaquín started.

"I'll circle back to you," Sam said, "Let's keep this between us okay? You too Lena."

"All right," Joaquín said as Sam ended the call.

"Definitely supersoldiers," Lena said, finishing Joaquín's thought.

"Especially with how bad you look right now."

"You know that's really not very nice," Lena said, a small smile creeping onto her features.

"Come on, let's get some food."