Broken Wings

Chapter 2 Busan Fiasco

May 2016

Berlin, Germany

Shouts echoed all around the facility as soon as the power grid suddenly shut down.

The first thing they lost was a visual on Barnes. But not long after the power went out, as Everett shouted orders to find out what was going on, the comm units went mad as the guards outside Barnes's holding area reported that the Winter Soldier was on the loose. And unlike when he'd been brought in, he was definitely hostile.

"Evac all civilians, get me a perimeter around the building and gunships in the air." Everett ordered loudly as agents began to move and just as Talia ran into the surveillance room.

Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff and Arianna Rogers were already gone, likely rushing to stop Barnes personally. Agent Carter was also missing, and Talia silently approved: in her books, the more help they had the better. She'd seen all available footage of Barnes's recorded fights including the insanity on top of the Washington highway from a few years ago. The man was more than ruthless. He was a beast.

Everett turned to Talia as she sped to his side, his gaze hard.

"Get down there and find Barnes." He ordered, not as a father but as a leader.

Talia nodded and was about to leave when Everett caught her arm to stop her. Pulling her close, he added in a whisper meant just for her, "If you need to use extreme measures, do it. We can't risk people's lives."

Talia's eyes flew up to meet her father's. Everett was dead serious and so after a brief moment, she nodded in agreement. With a worried look, he let her go and Talia hurried out the way she had come. By now, agents were starting the evac while security had already gathered on the lower levels where Barnes had last been seen. But by the time Talia reached the third floor, which had a good view of the ground floor below, she could see that there was no point in going any further down. Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark and Agent Carter were sprawled alongside the security team amongst the debris while Arianna Rogers lay winded on a table where Barnes had apparently been choking her if the way she was massaging her neck was any indication. The Winter Soldier himself was nowhere in sight; but Talia had an idea where he might be going. With the entrances all blocked, there was only one place left for him to escape.

Turning on her heel, Talia went in the opposite direction she had come from, heading straight for the roof where an emergency copter was stationed. It was on days like this that she was thankful for the training she put in on a daily basis even if she hated herself for it at the time. She shuddered to think what it would be like to climb up over twenty flights of stairs otherwise, even with her superior stamina. As it was, she reached the rooftop helipad in record time but she came to a shocked standstill when she flung open the door.

For a second though, Talia was sure she was hallucinating. She even rubbed them to make sure she wasn't imagining what she saw although the wind whipping her short hair about lent credence to the sight before her. Still, she had to look again to really believe that Steve Rogers was hanging onto the edge of the building as he locked himself in place with one hand on the railings around the edge of the helipad... and held down a helicopter with his other hand.

It took seeing Barnes inside the helicopter's cockpit for Talia to finally shake off her shock; unfortunately, it was also at that timing that Barnes decided on a drastic course of action. Unable to shake off the strong (and stubborn) captain, Barnes turned the helicopter back toward the building. Talia yelled while Rogers leapt back onto the helipad, where he rolled around to safety before he was crushed by the crashing machine.

"Captain Rogers, look out!" Talia shouted as the helicopter tail spun around and went straight for him.

Rogers turned to see and he ducked just in time before his head was lopped off by one of the helicopter's rotating blades. Talia sucked in a breath as she lost sight of Rogers for a moment as the dust rose around the crashed helicopter. And then she let out a breath as she saw a figure uncurling itself from beneath the wreckage. Rogers painfully got up on his hands and knees, finding himself face to face with the cockpit window... and a metal arm smashed right through the glass to grab him by the neck.