Frail heart

Writing on the wall

Chapter six

Safe to say, Fury wasn't at all pleased at what had been transpiring behind his back and, much to Steve's displeasure, a lot of expletives were hurled at those involved, but by some miracle, Maria had managed to convince him not to shut the whole thing down.

This leads us to the Quinjet, the team all huddled near the cockpit, listening intently as Steve goes over the plan. They were nearing touch down and they could already feel the chill of the Russian snow through the ventilated jet, but while their body temperatures were low, their spirits were high.

Before they boarded the jet back at the tower, Steve had given them a lengthy speech about persevering and teamwork, and it seemed to have worked because they had been laughing and joking with one another during the whole flight. Steve figured it was because they were familiar with recon missions, and while this one had significantly higher risks; it wasn't anything they couldn't adapt to.

Jarvis had been right when he showed the base to be in the middle of nowhere, snow covered every inch of the ground and there was no door or entrance in sight. Tony had Jarvis search for heat signatures through his suit and the rest of the team stayed back on the Quinjet to sit and watch as Tony walked in circles, all shivering from the cold. Suddenly, Tony's faceplate lifted, and the team could see his smoke of breath in the air as he yelled back to them a loud, "I found something!". Steve had jogged over to him, asking what exactly he had found when all he could see was snow, and Tony told him to step back, his suit lifting into the air and the blast of air from his jets blowing the snow out of the way to reveal a vent. The other members walk over, observing the vent and sharing unamused glances, reluctantly climbing inside after Steve ripped the door of the vent off and instructed them to. Once inside, the team walked through the dark vents, trying to navigate their way to the base.

"This has to be one of the most embarrassing ways we've entered literally anywhere.", Natasha groans, Clint agreeing with her.

Sam turns to Clint with a smirk, "I thought you liked the vents?"

"They're not usually this cold, or filled with four other people.", he remarks, earning a chuckle from Sam and Natasha.

Upfront, Steve and Tony converse strategy, leading the team to what they hope is an exit, "Do you think they can hear us?"

"I'd hope not but that hunk of metal is pretty loud.", Natasha complains and Tony spins to face her with an offended expression.

"This 'hunk of metal' is what found this damn place."

"Correction, it was actually me, sir.", Jarvis interrupts and the team laugh at Tony's exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, whatever Jarvis."

Many wrong turns, and jabs at Tony later, the team find themselves coming to a stop as Steve looks through the gaps of the vent below him, watching Hydra agents walk up and down the hall. Steve calculates the time between each passing guard, and he can only hope he calculated right when he drops down from the vent. Looking around, he sees no guards, calling out for the team to come down, locating an empty room and stepping inside so that the guards don't see them. Clint decided to stay up in the vents so that he could be their source of navigation, directing them on where to go and how many agents were in their way, and it had been going well until one of the agents made a different turn to what he had been doing previously, and bumped right into Steve. Natasha was quick to shoot a widow bite at him, stunning him to the ground and Steve hauled him into a corner, continuing on with the plan. As Clint reached the main room, he shot an arrow into the glass of a closed door, shattering it, which had gained the attention of everyone in the room, people yelling 'intruder!" over and over again. This effectively cleared the path for the other Avengers and they were on route to where Clint had directed them as soon as the coast was clear.