Hands of Red(Book 1 in the Red Series)

Chapter 19: The Truth and The Past

Natasha and I notice that Steve left a flashdrive in a bubble gum package with bubble gum and put it in the vending machine. Natasha then got the exact same bubble gum package took the flashdrive and hid it safe and close to her. She then split the bubble gum between us, because why not. Steve and co come back to see Natasha and I blowing bubbles with the bubble gum. That's when Steve pins down Natasha and Olivia pins me down which makes me go into gay panic. If you don't know I am pansexual, though only like Natasha, Bucky, Clint and Laura know this. "Where is it?" Steve asks us both. "Safe." I state. "Do better!" Olivia says and I flinch slightly, considering that she has never yelled at me. "Where did you get it?" Nat asks. "Why would we tell you both?" Aurora says crossing her arms. "Fury gave it to you. Why?" Natasha asks. "What's on it?" Charlotte asks. "I don't know." Natasha states. "Stop lying!" Steve demands. "We only act like I know everything, Rogers and Ross." I state. I kinda feel bad for Erica and Lillian who had to just watch this. "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Olivia asks. Well, it makes sense. "The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you." Nat says. "We're not gonna ask you again." Aurora states. "We know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years." I say. "So he's a ghost story." Charlotte says and I nod. "Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." Natasha continues and I rub her shoulder, but she gives me a reassuring smile as if to say she is alright. I knew that she still missed James though. She then pulls up her shirt to show the scar on her stomach. "Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis." Nat finishes. "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve says and Nat smirks a bit. "Going after him is a dead end. We know, we've both tried." I say as Natasha held up the flashdrive. "Like Charlie said, he's a ghost story." I finish. "Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." Olivia says.

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We go undercover in a mall. "First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk." I state. "If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Steve says. We all go to a mac store. "The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are." Nat states. Charlotte asks. "Uh...about nine minutes from..." I start and Natasha pops the drive into the MacBook Pro. "Now." I say. "Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter our commands." I state. "Can you override it?" Aurora asks. "The person who developed this is slightly smarter than us. Slightly. We're gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from." Nat states. "Can I help you guys with anything?" an Apple employee comes and says. I remain poised though. "Oh, no. My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." Natasha says and puts an arm around Steve. "Right! We're getting married." Steve says and Olivia looks a tad jealous. "And we're.. extended family!" I say implying Charlotte, Olivia, Aurora, Erica, Lillian and I who all wave. The dumb Apple employee smiles, believing it. "Congratulations. Where do you guys thinking about going?" he asks. "New Jersey." Steve says. I inwardly sigh, knowing that's somewhere where the signal was traced. "Oh. I have the exact same glasses." the employee says. "Yeah, I wish. Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." the man says. "Thank you." Olivia says. "You said nine minutes, come on." Steve says. "Shh, relax. Got it." Natasha says. We find the signal is coming from Wheaton, NJ. "You guys know it?" I ask. "We used to. Let's go." Charlotte says. "Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro." Steve says. Two agents come straight to us. "Everyone shut up and laugh at something I said." I state. Natasha does, but no one else does. "What?" Olivia, Charlotte, Steve and Aurora ask. Erica and Lillian are just chilling and very confused. Poor things. "Do it!" I practically shout and the four of them finally join Natasha. We then get to an escalator. "Kiss me." Natasha says. "What?" Steve asks. "Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." I add. "Yes, they do." Steve says. Natasha then pulls him and kisses his lips. Olivia looks jealous. She then pulls away. "You still uncomfortable?" my sister asks. "It's not exactly the word I would use." We then leave the mall and steal a car.