Caught in Storms

No Ride

-Emma-
I am a nervous wreck as I get my uniform on the next morning. I woke up early and woke Bucky up, then got ready to go. I have my hair tied in a tight half-ponytail that started as a French braid, and tied tight so as not to come out during the mission. I fight with my baby hairs to keep them from being annoying, which is always a losing battle on my part.
I am getting my uniform on and I notice it fits a little looser, I'm going to have to get it adjusted when we get back, seeing as I have been training my ass off since we got here. I know a lot of my clothes are fitting differently and I will definitely need to go shopping soon.
As I am getting ready, I think about Bucky waking up from a nightmare last night. He was really clingy afterwards and it makes me wonder what he was dreaming of. I don't know if I will be able to get him to talk to me about it, but I'm just glad I was there to help him through it. He seemed much better this morning when I woke him up.
I get all my weapons ready and in their holsters and finish up just as Bucky does. I smile nervously when I see him, my heart pounding in my chest for several reasons.
"Hey, you got this. I promise."
"Thank you, Bucky. You're so handsome," I smile as I blurt out and hug him. He's sweet to think that's what I was worried about at that particular moment, but now my mind is drifting back to the anxiety of the mission. I am so terrified right now that I am going to royally fuck something up and the whole team is going to second guess me coming to work then all.
We leave the room with our gear for the mission and get out to the quinjet. We get it all loaded up and strapped in and we take off, headed towards Moscow as quickly as we can. Seeing everyone in their full gear and ready to go is a surreal moment for me, as I have been thinking about this happening since I was in high school. I'm finally around the coolest people in existence and I have no real thought in my head other than 'this is so fucking cool!' I'm going to get to fight next to all of these people that I have admired for so long.
"Emma what's with the goonish look on your face? You're freaking everyone out," Scott says as he messes with something on his suit.
"Sorry, I'm just nerding out a little bit. This is something that I have dreamt about for a long time and now it's happening," I blush nervously.
There are chuckles as they gather around me and welcome me to the team. After a few moments of silent meditation, we all get settled in and are on our way to Russia.
Bucky is walking me through some more of our little plan, since we are the sharpshooters and ground strike team for this mission. There is a particular way that we want to get down from one building and into the next to raid the facility, and we have to make sure we are on point with it and one another so that we do it right.
Somehow it has been pretty easy for me to keep up with Bucky's pace in training and the last mission. I am smaller, but I have discovered I have more speed and strength than I realized. There were certain abilities or things I didn't have to do when I was in the military, but being a superhero is a whole new ballgame.
As I have been training, I've learned more about what I'm capable of, and I think I have surprised Bucky by what I can do. With him being a super soldier, there is a lot that he can do that normal people can't, so the fact that I am in some ways able to match him, I think I have surprised and worried him some.
If I am being honest with myself, I am worried too, because I don't know where all of this came from, but I am hoping I can make good use of it as Bucky's partner.

The flight lasts hours, most of us are bored or sleeping, Clint and Rhodes are manning the controls, Bucky and I are just resting for the mission ahead. There's some quiet conversation as we go over the details of the plan again for good measure after Bucky and I wake up from a power nap.
It's all quiet for awhile as we head towards our destination and we keep going over the mission plans here and there to keep our minds going. Rhodes is telling stories about his military days, one with a punchline that none of us really understand but try to humor anyway. I'm standing in the back area of the jet just making sure I have everything I need as I listen to Rhodes joke, chuckling at how absurd and confusing the joke is to me.
"He tells that same story and joke at every party and nobody knows what it is supposed to mean," Hope whispers and I giggle softly.
Suddenly, Clint gets a call from Hill who is angry and frantic sounding over the line.
"Guys we have a problem," Director Hill says.
"What's going on," Sam asks.
"Someone knows where you all are headed and what the mission is. The Gunrunners somehow got into the security system and warned Hydra operatives that you are on your way to the location."
"How the hell did the Gunrunners get into this, and what the fuck do they know about Hydra," I ask, feeling angry and scared, flashbacks to the warehouse go off in my head.
"So what do we do? We are right over enemy territory right now," Bucky says, clearly pissed, his eyes blackened and his jaw clenched so tight it looks like he might break his teeth.
"Hill said we need to try and find a place to lay low in Russia. We may be able to get them off our trail long enough to let their guard back down," Clint says in a tone that says he's scared but we don't have time to panic.
"I don't like this," I say. There's a pit in my stomach as I think about the Gunrunners once again showing up in the same issues that Hydra is. There is something much deeper at play with the Gunrunners and I know Bucky, Sam, and I all want to figure out what the hell it is.
"I know where we can go, somewhere Hydra would never think to look," Bucky says, glowering off into the distance as he gives Clint a set of coordinates.
"Are you sure about that Barnes..?"
"What choice do we have right now, Barton?"
Clint sighs and he starts to turn the jet so that we are going deeper into Russian territory making everyone shift in their seats at the hard maneuver.
"Where are we going," I ask.
"Siberia."
"Why are we going deeper into their lines? We should be trying to get away from them," Scott hollers out from the back, messing with something on his belt as he and Hope are standing around the gear.
"If we can get deep enough to hide in their playing field, we can wait it out for an extraction team and get the upper hand back. You guys are just going to have to trust me," Bucky says and is flipping through a notebook he had in his pocket for something he needs. I watch him curiously and chew my lip as I wait for the next move.
I start getting more anxious about this operation against Hydra, remembering the way that it was described during WWII and after the helicarriers were destroyed. These guys are ruthless and will seemingly stop at nothing to get what they want. Maybe that's what Bucky's nightmare was about, his time with Hydra. And now there's the Gunrunners that are somehow connected with Hydra and letting them know what is going on with us.
After about another hour, we are finally getting towards the new coordinates when there is an alert blaring through the jet and a bright red light flashing overhead. I've been in the back making sure my gear is locked and ready to go for when we land.
"Hang on guys, we are currently in missile lock," Clint yells and is suddenly making hard maneuvers with the jet. I scream as I hit the wall hard, holding onto a harness lockup as Clint flies the jet. I feel Bucky grabs me by my vest and hold onto me and a set of seats as tight as he can so I'm not slamming into the walls. He holds me in the seat as best as he can as the maneuvers get rougher from Clint trying to avoid missiles.
Rhodes gets out of his harness and in his armor to try and see if he can take care of the plane locked in on us, opening the hatch and taking off.
I feel myself starting to have a panic attack but trying hard to fight it off, already having hated flying before this, definitely hating it now. Everyone else is trying to gather what they need and hang on tight.
* "I can't get him knocked offline, there's some sort of armor plating my beams can't break through,"* Rhodes yells over comms.
There's a large blast sound and the jet rocks hard, shaking everyone off balance again.
"Barton get us out of here!"
"I'm trying, the guy won't shake off," he yells as he keeps trying to maneuver out of the way of the blasts going off. This goes on for a few more minutes before Clint starts messing with switches and then gets up out of the pilot seat.
"What the hell are you doing??"
"We are going to have to make a jump guys, if Rhodes can keep that pilot distracted long enough to let us parachute out, he can follow the jet in autopilot. We are only a few clicks away from the base we were headed to."
Everyone starts gathering things that they know they will need and getting ready to jump. Scott and Hope are able to get all the needed gear shrunk down and pocketed and then they leave first since she could fly him out of there with no problems.
Sam is strapping his wing harness to himself and getting ready to take Clint with him when there is another large blast to the jet. Sam and Clint hit the wall this time, Bucky lands hard against the back of a seat, and I lose my grip on the harness I was holding as the jet rocks to the side again. Sam hurries and gets Clint off the jet as I go tumbling down the back of the open hatch. All I can hear is Bucky yelling my name as he runs to try to grab me. I cling to the back as tight as I can, finding a bar on the side where the hatch locks into the jet and try to pull myself back up.
There is nowhere for me to grab to get some leverage on my hold, so my grip is slipping as Bucky is trying reach out to me. He almost has a grip on my vest harness as there is a loud explosion behind us. The jet keeps rocking and I am thrown off the hatch hard as the hatch bounces up and down, and I go flying through the air.
"Bucky!!!"
"No, Emma!!!"
I scream out loudly as I plummet to the ground the cold air whipping around me as I tumble through the air.
I feel myself falling hard and fast from the jet, the entire ground that is getting closer covered in dense white snow. I feel myself losing consciousness as I panic and the cold air hits me harder and harder. I shake myself awake and I try to think about what I could do to land alive. I remember I have my axes and I get them in hand and try to slow myself down midair and turn so I am able to get in a feet-first position. Once I am closer to the ground I breathe heavily and I reach out to a tree, digging my axes in as hard and deep into the trunk as I possibly can.
I let out a long and loud yell as I am hit with branch after branch on my way down the tree, leaving two long tears in the tree bark as I basically skate down the trunk.
My axes dislodge from the tree as I am still sliding down and I fall backwards out of it, landing in the ground in a somewhat, but not much, softer patch of brush and snow. I land splayed out on my back and ass in the bush and aching hard from the beating I took from the tree. I let myself pass out hard, exhausted and aching, sort of wishing that I had been wearing my fucking seatbelt. Rule number one on every fucking vehicle.