Ascertainment || Bucky Barnes (2)

14

Basil ducked as above him a turtle whale blew up. The whole thing combusted from the inside out, metal bursting and grey flesh cooking in the heat. (It smelled terrible). The crowd of aliens he had been fighting were crushed by a piece of metal armour the size of a car falling on them. It technically fell on Basil too but he was the one to walk away from it. As the remains of the turtle exploded above, he saw a red and gold shape come hurtling through the air and land with a few clanging bounces down the street. He ran over.

"Did you just impersonate Jonah?" He asked with a smirk as he helped pull Tony to his feet. The Ironman suit creaked and clanged worryingly. It was rather battered and scuffed.

Down the comms he heard Clint call out. "I've lost my position. Being over whelmed!" No sooner than he spoken then a laser blast hit the ground next to Basil and Tony. Basil turned and grabbed one of the fallen alien's guns from the floor. It took a second and two more blasts passing through him before he managed to work out how to shoot the damned thing. Distantly a roar echoed round the city. The hulk didn't sound good.

"Stark! You hear me?" Fury's voice came crackling through the comms. "You have a missile headed straight for the city". Basil cursed loudly and colourfully as he shot down two more aliens. Tony doing the same at his side.

"How long?" Tony replied.

"Three minutes max. The payload will wipe out manhattan".

"Go get it", Basil nodded as he shot down three more. They just kept on coming. Tony nodded at him and blasted off. His figure disappearing into the sky above. Basil shot down the aliens that tried to fly after him. More blaster fire shot at him. The lasers leaving scotch marks on the pavement at his feet. Basil tried to shoot back but his gun was empty. He gritted his teeth as he dropped it, going for his knives. More blaster fire blinded him and he tripped sideways. He was outnumbered and alone. Steve stuck on another street and the others pinned down. For a minute he considered it. He considered turning tangible and solid again and letting the aliens take him out. He had been fighting so long and he was so tired. This weird dream had to end some point.

For a second, blaster fire reigning around him, obscuring his vision and heating up the air until he began choking from smoke; he imagined it. He imagined just giving up dying like he was supposed to. He was supposed to die in that lab, or when he was shot in the chest. He was supposed to, wanted to die when the plane crashed into the artic. For a second he imagined dying then waking up to Bucky's face smiling at him. To seeing his parents again, his lover, his friends. It was ironic really that his power was that things couldn't touch him. That bullets would never hit him and that explosions wouldn't affect him. Some cruel twist of fate that he couldn't die when he wanted. It made Basil want to laugh.

"I can close it!" Nat's voice crackled down the comm. Basil almost couldn't hear her over the blaster fire around him. "Can anyone copy? I can close the portal".

"Do it!" Steve ordered.

"No!" Tony called. "I have a nuclear missile headed straight for us. It's going to blow in less than a minute and I know just where to put it". Basil sat up. He was still being rained down on by laser fire (the aliens seemed very confused as to why he wasn't dead yet when the concrete below him was cracked and smoking).

"Tony you know that is a one way trip right?" Steve asked.

"Save the rest for the return".

Basil sighed and stood up. He supposed that he could die another day. He turned his head up to watch as the missile and Tony disappeared up through the portal and into space. Tense seconds passed then at once all the Chituri dropped lifeless to the ground. Their mothership destroyed and their signal cut off. The portal winked out of existence and Basil was already up and moving as Tony fell lifeless through the sky. He ran through the buildings and reached Steve and Thor just as Hulk caught him. The green body landed heavily with a grunt on the ground then dropped the red and gold man to the floor with a sniff. Basil hurried over as Steve pulled the mask from his face. He knelt down and shoved Steve out of the way as he checked Tony's breath. The man wasn't breathing.

"He's not breathing, I need this chest plate off", he announced but was suddenly cut off by the hulk roaring. Everyone jumped, including Tony who woke with a scream.

Basil laughed as Tony blinked at them with wide eyes. "What the hell?" The billionaire gasped. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me".

"I was going to do cpr but luckily Hulk here scared you back to life", Basil laughed.

Tony looked at him. "That interview was right, you do laugh like a psychopath". Basil laughed harder, practically doubling over as he shook with giggles.

"We won", Steve sighed.

"Alright yay", Tony raised an arm in cheer. "Let's not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day". He groaned as the exhaustion began to hit them all. Basil had half collapsed on the concrete at his side, body still shaking with the occasional hysterical giggle. He pulled off his helmet and let it roll lazily away. "Have you ever tried Shawarma?" Tony asked.

"Oh graceful queen", Basil muttered. "I have missed Shawarma. My mother used to make the best shawarma".

"There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it".

"Mate, you are missing out", Basil groaned.

"We are not finished yet", Thor reminded. Steve turned towards Stark tower.

"And then shawarma after", Tony stated. There was a pause. "Yeah someone is going to have to help me up. My limbs feel like lead". Basil exhaled amusedly and slowly rolled over onto his feet as Steve helped pull Tony up. He glanced over to the tall building.

"Your lifts better be working Stark. I really can't be fucked to deal with stairs right now".

——

The shawarma joint Tony had mentioned was surprisingly pretty unscathed. After they had picked up a pretty beaten up Loki and turned him over to the authorities, the avengers had shuffled away. (They had to find clothes for Bruce first though which took a little bit of time). The staff had hidden in the basement and were all too eager to serve them for free. They all shuffled round a table, pulling chairs upright as they sat down. It was later when they all had food and were eating in silence, listening as the emergency services and shield began covering the city, that hit hit Basil. There, eating food that his mother used to cook for him, and watching the chaos through the window outside. His body feeling like it had been hit by a truck.

Steve was half asleep, slouched over the table. Head propped up on one hand as he chewed slowly. Thor was looking at his food in a confused but worn out way, more entertained by the shop decor than anything else. Bruce was devouring his food like a starving man. Basil guessed that transforming into the hulk cost a lot of energy. While Nat and Clint were leaning slightly on each other. Clint reading a book he had picked up, hearing aids on the table next to him while Nat stretched her muscles. Tony was just watching Bruce with wide eyes as if he had just realised that he had been scared back to life by the man next to him. Basil would have found the look funny is he wasn't having his own realisation.

"Steve", he muttered. Steve stirred and hummed at the sound of his name. Basil turned to his friend. "Steve. This isn't some weird fucked up dream isn't it?"

Steve blinked open his eyes. The blues calm and sad. "No. It's not".

"Oh", Basil's voice was small. Then he was laughing and crying. Tears pouring down his cheeks as he giggled. He sniffed and kept on crying.

"He's finally snapped then", Tony asked.

Basil laughed madly. He looked up at them with bright green eyes, wide and red rimmed. His hand clutching at the dog tags under his uniform. "Ever since I woke up from the ice I thought this was some mad dream, a fever dream. Some sort of weird thing my mind made up. But it's not. Oh god it's not". He let out a sob and began shaking. "It's not and my parents are dead and my brother is a old man. And I'm not going to see Bucky again".

Steve sighed softly. He reached out and put a hand on Basil's head. "So now you're crying. I did think you were taking this too well". Basil sobbed, whole body hunching in as he cried. Finally he cried as everything hit him. He was really stuck in the modern world. And that realisation was terrifying.

Unedited