Soft Robotics ✧ Bucky Barnes

(velocity[2.17]);

Alarms had sounded, signaling a security breach as the prison went into a lockdown. They were shut off quickly, automated protocols canceled.

"I need to get to the control room," I said. "Somebody's hacking their system. I can stop it."

"I'll go with you," Steve said. He turned to Sam and Nat. "Go after Bucky and Rumlow. Circle around to the prison yard. He must have someone waiting for him there. Make sure he doesn't get away."

The two officers ran with Steve and me, leading us to the control room toward the front of the building. The metal door there was secured shut too, but it didn't look as heavy as the others.

"Move over," Steve told me, motioning for me to stand away from the door. I did, and he backed up, took a running start, and threw himself into it.

He didn't knock the door off. He knocked a hole through the metal, landing in a heap on the other side.

"Are you okay?" I asked, poking my head through the Steve-shaped hole to check on him.

"I've had worse," he said, rising from the floor. "Come on."

I stepped through the hole and surveyed the room. The two men inside must have already recovered from the shock of Steve bursting in, because they were facing away from us, working frantically at their keyboards.

"Excuse me. Sorry. Could I try? I can probably help," I said to one of them, who was trying to get the doors under control. He spared a skeptical look at me and turned back to the screen.

I pulled his chair back from the desk and rolled him away toward Steve. "Move. I'm a genius," I said.

I leaned over the keyboard and studied the screen. "Steve, I need you to watch the surveillance feed over there and tell me which doors to prioritize. What needs closed?"

I'd already set to work on the back exit into the prison yard, where Rumlow was headed. "The back—yeah, you got it. Now there's a cell block on the east side. Looks like they opened some doors there to cause a distraction—yeah, that's the one."

"What about Bucky? Where is he?"

"He and Rumlow are already out in the yard. There's a helicopter for Rumlow. Nat and Sam just got over the wall. I don't think there's anything we can do from here."

"What? There has to be—"

"They just reopened that back exit, Grace. Focus on making sure no one else gets out there to complicate things. Door on the west side now—you got it."

"Steve, just go help them. This guy can watch the cameras for me," I said, nodding to the guy whose computer I'd taken over.

"I can't. He'd never forgive me for leaving you."

"He'd get over it!"

"Grace," he said seriously. "I can't leave you. Why do you think Rumlow, a super soldier, apparently, who could have escaped whenever he wanted, would wait until there were multiple Avengers in the build—West side again—there you go. He was willing to risk doing it with us here because he was after you. If Buck hadn't stopped things when he did, you would've been with him when he escaped. I think he would've tried to take you for whatever it is they—dammit. Dammit."