Strings - A Winter Story

-11-

"Live as a villain, die as a hero"

NEW YORK

The hot water smoothes Autumn's brunette hair so that it nearly reaches her hips. The much needed shower helps her tense muscles relax, and will hopefully prevent them cramping later on. The bathroom is far from five star, but it has a shower with hot water and that's exactly what she needed. It has only been 4 four hours since she set off the explosion, so her nerves are still on edge. Autumn emerges from the shower, wrapping a towel around her bare body. She wrings out her hair and makes her way to the joining room hosting a plain single bed.

As she plonks herself down on the bed she has one thought in her head, she needs a plan. Plans meant she could to some degree predict the future which in turn meant she could prepare. SHIELD wants her for some unknown reason, and HYDRA want her dead. Two bad options according to Autumn.

Bucky didn't kill her, so that means they either wish to interrogate her, arrest her or they need her help. She was lucky that she didn't tell Bucky anything that they could use against her, or so she hopes.

There is only one way she could find out any information, and it happens to be the one thing Autumn really wishes to avoid, making contact with SHIELD. They had really thrown her under the bus last time they met and that has left its scars for Autumn, so helping them was out of the question. She just wants to know why they are showing such an interest in her.

So it is set, a trio deeper into the Big Apple is required.

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13 HOURS LATER

Autumn can get a lot done in not a lot of time, and she has been very productive. From the time she had finished her shower, she has gone to her weapons supplier and collected the same sniper rifle she had used to kill Senator Stern. Unfortunately she was placed in a position where she had to put a bullet in his head, after he tried to put one in hers. HYDRA she presumed, seems it's open season on Autumn. It had however, given her the chance to take some other weapons, she wasn't going to let that opportunity pass her.

Shortly afterwards, she had hopped on a train heading to New York City, hiding among the various bags and stuff people have with them. She only had her duffle bag stuffed with weapons, travel light. Using her research skills, she used the computer in the weapons shop and her knowledge of hacking to acquire the location of the Avengers Facility. They were quite literally, hiding in plain sight just outside the city in a green area.

The journey took a long time due to the many stops on the route and it was uncomfortable. Most slept to pass time, but Autumn stayed awake and went over her plan thousands of times. She reckoned it had a 40/60 success rate, high enough for her.

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"Anything yet?" Bucky nervously asks Steve, who is staring at a computer screen. He crumples his face and shakes his head, indicating he didn't have much.

"Not really just a few mission reports from a few years back. Nothing useful, and here's me thinking you were the ghost" he smirks at Bucky as he attempts to lighten the mood. Bucky merely smiles back before stuffing his hands into his pockets of his denim jeans.

"I'll go and see if Sam found anything" Bucky informs Steve of his plans before leaving the room. He walks in silence to the kitchen where he finds Sam and Wanda talking over a cup of tea, the pair smile to Bucky as he joins them.

"Hey man whats up?" Sam greets to Bucky after seeing him enter the room.

"I was wondering if you had anything on the woman we are after?" Bucky responds to his question, it's obvious to all that Bucky is the most invested in the chase.