Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Ten

My body hits the ground with a painful thud, my ears ringing and my vision blurry.

"Y/n!" Steve's muffled voice calls my name. "Y/n, are you hurt?!"

"I'm okay," I answer, the blurry figure of my friend coming into focus. "Go!"

Steve hauls Tony to his feet, and the two of them scramble out of the lab to find the source of the explosion.

Across the room, Fury clutches his ribs as he slowly gets up, and I notice the huge hole in the floor, where Thor, Banner, and Natasha must've fallen through.

"Hill?!" Fury shouts into his earpiece, hoping to get an update on the situation.

"External detonation. Number 3 engine is down!" She informs us from the bridge. "Somebody's got to get outside and patch that engine."

"Stark, you copy that?" Fury asks.

Tony's voice comes through my earpiece, "I'm on it!"

Fury continues giving out orders, "Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section, then get to the armory! Romanoff?!"

"We're okay," she replies, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I follow Fury out of the room.

Fury leads me to the bridge, where we see the chaos caused from the blast. Agents scurry from monitor to monitor, trying to figure out the cause of the explosion as Agent Hill attempts to keep the situation under control.

"Bring the carrier about to a 1-8-0, heading south!" Fury orders the helmsman. "Take us to the water!"

"We're flying blind," The helmsman replies. "Navigation's recalibrating after the engine failure."

"Is the sun coming up?!" Fury demands, losing patience.

"Yes, sir," the helmsman confirms.

"Then put it on the left!" Fury orders. "Get us over water. One more turbine goes down, and we drop."

The helmsman complies as Fury, Hill, and I gather around the monitors overlooking the room.

"What do you need me to do, sir?" I ask.

"We need a full evac on the lower hanger bay," Fury informs. "Hill, go with her."

Agent Hill nods, and we make our way to the door, only making it halfway before a small, silver device rolls toward us.

"Grenade!" Hill shouts as I shove her out of the way, the two of us tumbling down the steps of the pit as the device detonates.

On the platform above, Fury raises his pistol and quickly moves to the wall, shielding himself from view of the door. A moment later, two men enter the room, dressed in SHIELD uniforms and aiming their assault rifles.

Fury lets the first man enter before stepping out from his hiding place, grabbing the barrel of the second man's weapon and whipping him in the throat with his pistol. He then aims the pistol at the first man, shooting him in the chest before disarming the second man and throwing him to the floor. A third man enters the room, aiming his rifle at Fury, but Hill shoots first, killing the attacker.

"We got perimeter breach!" Agent Sitwell calls out over the communicators. "Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Callouts at every junction!"

I pull out the pistol strapped to my thigh as more rogue agents appear, trying to force their way onto the bridge. But Fury, Hill, and I defend the entrance, picking them off one by one.

"We have the Hulk and Thor on Research Level 4!" Sitwell updates us. "Levels 2 and 3 are dark!"

"Sir, the Hulk tear this place apart!" Hill shouts between rounds.

"Get his attention," Fury orders.

Hill ducks into the pit to speak into her earpiece. "Escort 6-0, proceed to Wishbone and engage hostile! Don't get too close!"

"Copy," the escort pilot replies, and a few moments later, his voice returns. "Target acquired. Target engaged... Target angry, target angry!"

The gunfight on the bridge dies down, but I reload my pistol with a new clip. Every so often, a handful of rogue agents reappear at the door, trying to force their way in, only to be picked off by me, Fury, or Hill.

"They are not getting through here..." Fury mumbles. "So, what the hell—"

He's interrupted midsentence as an arrow soars into the room and explodes, showering us with flames, smoke, and sparks. A second arrow flies past, narrowly missing Fury's torso, and strikes the control panel behind us. Fury retaliates, aiming his gun at the source of the arrows, but the agent is already gone.

All of the monitors on one side of the bridge begin to malfunction, flickering one by one before shutting down. The helicarrier suddenly veers to the right, causing multiple agents to stumble as the floor tilts beneath our feet.

"Sir, we've lost all power in Engine 1," Sitwell tells us.

"It's Barton," Fury informs. "He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?"

Natasha's voice appears through the earpieces. "This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."

"Stark, we're losing altitude," Fury states, regaining control of his monitor.

"Yeah. Noticed," Tony's voice replies.

Fury glances at his monitor, noticing that the hatch in the detention centre, the one below Loki's cell, has been opened. Fury orders me to follow his as we head in that direction, knowing he sent Agent Coulson there too.

We burst through the doors to find Coulson slumped against the wall, his shirt bloody from a wound in his chest. I rush over, putting pressure on the wound as I try to save his life. Flashbacks from the war flood my vision and I feel my powers threatening to burst free, but I force those emotions down as I let my training take over like I've done so many times before. Now is not the time to have an episode.

"Sorry, boss," Coulson breathes as Fury crouches beside us. "The god rabbited."

"Just stay awake," Fury orders. "Eyes on me."

"No," Coulson responds weakly. "I'm clocked out here."

"Not an option," Fury states.

I do everything I can to help Coulson, everything that I was trained to do, but as my hands become covered in his blood, I know my fight is futile.

"It's okay, boss," Coulson whispers. "This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..."

Coulson's voice fades as his eyes drift from us, and he sighs his last breath. I press my fingers to his neck and, finding no pulse, I turn to Fury, slowly shaking my head.

"Agent Coulson is down," Fury states, informing the rest of the team through the communicators.

"Paramedics are on their way," an agent responds as the medical team rushes into the room.

"They're here," Fury tells him. "Lieutenant Y/l/n called it."