The Mimic

139

Complete chaos was the only way to describe what was going on.

Nobody was able to distinguish the difference between the real couple and the illusions, so resources were spread extremely thin. It was perfect. Instead of being chased by hundreds of gunmen and arrested in seconds, there were only around two or three men chasing them, and that wasn't a challenge for the pair.

Shooting at the them was the only way the gunmen could tell who was an illusion and who wasn't. It sounded like an easy task, but y/n knew the city like the back of her hand. She'd been in the city enough to know every single shortcut and alleyway. The illusions weren't just running blindly, y/n was controlling each and every single one of them. Even their facial expressions were controlled by y/n. It sounded like a huge power drain, but illusions were far easier than mind control. Illusions were simply tricks of light, they had no solidity to them. They could pass through walls if y/n allowed them to. To the naked eye the illusions looked like real people, and none of the gunmen had experienced y/n's powers first hand before, they were completely falling right into her tricks.

There was only one person around that had figured out the difference between an illusion and the real thing, but he was currently being forced into the back of a limousine.

"I swear to god, Parker. Sit down. I don't want to strap you in like a toddler."

Peter was trying with all of his might to stop Tony from forcing him into the limousine. The kid was positioned like a cat trying to avoid a bath. Every single limb was out of the vehicle, gripping as tight as he could to the sides as Tony tried to pry his hands away. "I can't go! I have homework to do!" He exclaimed over all of the noise. The poor kid was still trying to create excuses for y/n and Bucky. He wanted to help them escape, he could easily web up a few of the gunmen - or even better, help create even more chaos.

Peter was very aware that he was the only one that knew how to distinguish between the illusions and the real thing, but he wasn't going to say a word. He'd figured it out during the Zemo incident. Back then, the illusions stepped in puddles and the water wouldn't even react to any contact. It was obvious that they didn't have any solidity. Hell, there were puddles all over the city. But nobody was seeming to realise. All they were focused on was being the person that caught (or killed) two war criminals.

*****

"Buck, we need to split up." Y/n suddenly said, a serious look in her eyes. Something was wrong. Something that she hadn't vocalised with Bucky yet, but only because she'd only just realised. But the realisation was terrifying. She had been too focused on running and having fun with Bucky to realise the mistake that she'd made.

Bucky glanced over at y/n with wide eyes. His face was riddled with confusion and surprise. The bone-crushing grip that she had on his hand was telling him a completely different story. Why would she want them to split up? It didn't sound like a very productive plan at all. Before they started to travel, y/n and Bucky had promised to stick together no matter what. Y/n never broke a promise. "What? Why?" He asked, raising his voice over the constant sound of gunshots.

Y/n was completely serious. Her smile had completely dropped. She almost felt sick at the idea of it all. Of course she didn't want to split from Bucky, she didn't even want to let go of his hand, but they had no choice. No matter how dangerous it was - especially with Bucky not having his metal arm - it had to be done.

Y/n suddenly yanked Bucky into an alleyway with a dead end, forcing him to hide behind a dumpster with her. "I've messed up." She murmured between heavy breaths, her body trying it's hardest to catch up after running for so long. "At the end of this street, there's a park. And around six other pairs of illusions are going to reach that park at the same time as us. It's inevitable that they're going to run through one another and reveal themselves as illusions. It'll be obvious that we're the real ones, so we need to split." She murmured with a sigh, using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. "It's an open area. There'll be bullets and possibly grenades coming from every single direction. If we split and run with an illusion, there'll be less of a chance of getting hit."

Bucky let out an exasperated breath, his back resting up against the dumpster with his eyes closed. Their situation just kept getting worse and worse. "We can't risk splitting up. What if you get hurt? I won't be there to help you escape, you'll be on your own. It's not worth it." He said seriously, struggling to catch his breath. "Why can't we just run a different way?"

"There is no 'different way'." Y/n murmured, annoyed at herself for messing up so badly. They hadn't had a mission in over a year, her thinking skills were pretty rusty. "Illusions are on every single path except this one. I was trying to make them run a loop to keep the gunmen distracted, but we managed to run into that loop." She murmured, cursing under her breath. They were practically caught in their own trap.

Bucky finally opened his eyes, wiping a hand over his face with a sigh. His eyes were full of fear. It was almost as if he'd just woken up from a nightmare, but this time the nightmare was real. Everything kept going wrong. "I'm sorry." He murmured, causing y/n to glance over at him in confusion. "This is all my fault. If I didn't mention give you the idea of travelling around the world, we wouldn't be here right now. We'd be relaxing in Wakanda. But I messed it all up, and now we're probably going to get shot dead."

Y/n's eyebrows furrowed deeply as Bucky begun to spiral. She moved to cup his face in her hands, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "Hey. Don't say that..." She frowned, brushing her thumbs over his cheeks. It didn't matter that his face was covered in sweat, she didn't care. They didn't have much time to be sentimental, but y/n understood why Bucky was acting like he was. This could be the last time that they saw one another.

"I've always wanted to travel around the world, and you made that dream come true. You and I both know that we would've gotten bored in Wakanda by now." She hummed with a slight smile. As much as y/n and Bucky hated it, they craved action. Their dream of settling down like in the sitcoms was never going to happen. They'd been through too many things to life a normal life.

"We're not going to get shot, we're not going to die, and we're not going to get caught." Y/n hummed reassuringly, but it was obvious that she was also lying to herself. "We can get through this, so you need to stop getting sentimental. If you treat this like our last time together, I'm going to find out a way to tell Sam." She teased with a mischievous smile. They needed as much energy as possible to get through what was about to happen. They couldn't be in a solemn mood.

Both of them were practically running straight to their deathbeds, there was no other way of describing it. But T'Challa and the Dora Milaje were coming to save them, right?