The Archangel (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty Seven

"Target in sight." I said into the comm as I spotted it from a distance.

"Your window's closing fast, find a way onto that plane and disable whatever weapon you find. Quickly." Steve implored.

"You got it, Cap." I got close enough to the mega-jet to try and find any doors, there weren't many, and only ones that opened from the inside, so if we busted through them, everything would come flying out from the pressure breach—not exactly ideal for stealth missions. I stayed away from the wings, knowing the propellers in the engines were like vortexes, if they got a hold of even a single feather, it would really ruin my weekend.

As I flew over the top of the plane, I spotted an emergency hatch, one with a handle on the outside. Bucky must've felt my intentions through our connection because he was ready for what was going to come next. I got him close enough where he could dig his metal hand into the fuselage and hold on tight while I opened the hatch. It was near impossible to hold onto the outside of a plane to catch a ride, but with our strength we managed, at least for a few moments. But moments were all we needed.

I opened the hatch and pulled Bucky through by his uniform, before letting go of the fuselage that I had dented with my grip and crawling in myself, closing the hatch door behind me. "Well, that was fun." I huffed, winded from the flight and that particularly fun exercise.

"Do you need a minute? Want me to stay?" Bucky asked, crouched beside me while surveying the area, a knife at the ready.

"No, you go. We'll need to split up to cover this thing anyway." I was already regaining my breath, I'd be ready to continue on shortly.

Bucky smiled and kissed my cheek, pressing one of his knives into my hand. "Don't do anything stupid till I get back."

I chuckled, "how can I? Your taking all the stupid with you." He muttered something about Steve rubbing off on me too much before he disappeared around the corridor, descending into the belly of the beast—without me.

I pressed my wings in close to my back and readied the knife as I made my way in the opposite direction. I had no idea what I was looking for, but something told me that I'd know it when I see it. The plane was eerily empty, not a soul anywhere. "Bucky, have you found anything?" I asked through the earpiece.

"Nothing, haven't come across anyone either." I heard through the connection. It was creepy how empty it was.

I cleared each and every room and corridor that I came across, but most of it was servers. There weren't any type of weapons anywhere, not a single one. "I'm coming up nothing, Buck."

"Me too, moving onto the third floor."

I moved down to the next floor and paused as the entire thing was filled from end to end with servers. What the hell were they doing with these things? "Cap, come in."

"Here, Archangel."

"Are you sure this is the right plane? There aren't any weapons here."

"Location confirmed, that's your target, what do you mean there aren't any weapons on board?"

"It's a dead zone, Cap, there's no one here, just servers everywhere."

Abruptly, it was Tony's voice over the comm, "see if you can find an access point, the weapon might not be a physical one, I can walk you through what I see."

"Copy that, I'll see what I can do, over." Moving through the plane, it was just more and more servers. Toward the back half of the plane, I did end up finding a rather large room, one filled with old school filing cabinets, with a single computer attached to the only server in the room, cords running everywhere. "I think I found it."

Stark gave me the commands so that FRIDAY could take control of the system. Once that was done, he waved me off, saying, "there's a lot here, this is gonna take a minute, Angel." I had wanted to cheek out those paper copy files anyway.

I opened the first one and pulled out a random file but paused once I saw the familiar insignia stamped on the front. Hydra. They were gone but apparently Akinjide had an interest in what they were up to—go figure. Will we never be free of them?

Bucky called through the comms, "this plane is a ghost-town, what's your position, Angel?"

"On top." I responded on reflex, forgetting that the channel was open to the others as I went through the files. File after file; personnel folders, all either deceased or MIA. I kept moving through the cabinets, coming across Bucky's, I glanced at it, his was one that was MIA. I folded it up and shoved it in my pocket for later and kept going, I didn't have the time to look it over right now.

"Not exactly what I was referring to, doll." I could hear the amusement in Bucky's voice. I mean, I was slightly distracted. I went through every file cabinet and every file in them, they had dossiers on every Hydra personnel, former or not, but not on me, someone must have removed it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I turned to check Tony's progress at the computer, "I'm happily married to the man of my—" noticing a reflection in the screen, I cursed, "oh shit!" I ducked and threw my wings up but not in time. The bullets tore through my wings, one managing to pierce my abdomen. It was the most excruciating pain I'd ever felt, like my entire body was on fire and freezing all at once. "That hurt."

"Angel! Angel, come in! Angel, are you alright?"

I found sufficient cover, before responded, "yeah, I think so," and questioned myself, "have I been shot?" Looking at the gold-tinged blood that was now slowly seeping out of the hole in my metal skin, I confirmed, "yeah, I've been shot."

"Send me your location, I'm coming to you." He demanded through the comms. I sent him directions through my watch and leaned heavily against the filing cabinets. I didn't have a gun to hold off the shooter, why would I? I had never needed one to. I had been able to walk through a hailstorm of bullets and come out unscathed, being faced with this kind of mortality made me feel vulnerable, human even.

"You like that? I had these made after I read your file. I knew we'd run into each other eventually." I heard the shooter rustle around by the doorway, not bothering to come any further into the room, with only one exit—one that he was blocking, I was trapped. "True adamantium, the only thing stronger than vibranium, pain in the ass to find, an even bigger pain to obtain, but now? The indestructible Archangel of Hydra, brought down with a few bullets. Worth every cent."

I needed to stall for time until Bucky got here, that was my only chance against such a weapon, especially when I didn't have one of my own. "Do you ever shut up?" I growled, truth be told, he reminded me a bit of Sam with his stupid smart-ass remarks, just with a particularly menacing evil streak.

"Now that's just rude. And here I was gonna give you this file, it's such an interesting read too. Codename Archangel, created 1929 by Hydra, activated 1946, sound familiar?" Not in the least but it had to be my file, "I do have to say, Hydra was very thorough . . . Angela."

My brow furrowed in confusion as I thought, who the hell is Angela?