The Super Soldier

Chapter 23

BUCKY'S POV

     I watch as Steve's jaw clenches and he balls his hands into fists. He walks over to the side of the stairs and looks over the railing.
    Down below, on the next landing Williamson smiles and waves up at us.
    I know what Steve is going to do. I can tell by the look in his eyes.
Oh my God, I think to myself. He's going to revenge Sharon.
   Right as Steve jumps over the railing I reach out to stop him.
    "Steve no!" I yell. "It could be a trap!"
    My voice echoes off the stairwell walls so I know he can hear me. But does he listen? No he doesn't.
   It's too late. Steve is already in full pursuit of Williamson. I turn and look at the rest of the group standing behind me.
    "Are you guys just going to stand there?!" I asks. "Lets go!"
   I take off down the stairs running after Steve and Williamson. Not even a few seconds later I reach the front door of the apartment building. Partly because it's faster, and partly for effect, I kick up my leg and slam the door open with my foot.
     Once the door is open I break into a run only to crash into Steve.
    "What are yo-" I begin to ask only to stop mid sentence.
    I look around us. The entire apartment building is surrounded in Williamson's brainwashed army made of children.

                             **************

"Where's Williamson?!" I ask Steve.
"I don't know." He replies sheepishly. "I chased him out here but he disappeared into the midst of the army."
I can hear the others approaching from behind. I turn around to be met with the startled look on Wanda's face.
    "They have Sam." She whispers obviously still in shock from the apartment incident.
    "Sam?" I ask, confused.
    Wanda looks at me like I'm an idiot and with a shaky finger, points.
    I follow her arm with my eyes until I see what she's pointing at. Across the street, one of the kids holds Sam tied up against the building. Their hand is clamped firmly across his mouth so he can't call for help.
    "I'm going to get my friend back and avenge Sharon while in at it." Steve says charging into the crowd.
    Right as he steps off the sidewalk, all hell brakes loose.

****************

At least seven brainwashed soldiers advance towards Steve right as his feet touch the asphalt.
It doesn't appear as though Steve feels bad about hurting the innocent kids. He is doing what he needs to defend himself but these kids are only attacking him against their will.
Swinging his shield left and right he plows his way through the crowd trying to get to Sam. He rams the shield onto the top of one of the kids heads. The kid falls to the ground, unconscious.
As Steve makes his way closer to Sam, the entire army unleashes themselves upon him. The force of hundreds of tiny arms finally becomes too great, so one of the older looking kids grabs Steve's arms and cuffs his hands and then his feet together.
I don't know what those cuffs are made out of but I know there is no way he will escape them.
After making sure Steve wasn't a threat, the army then turns towards us. They begin advancing on the remaining Avengers cowering on the side walk.
     Natasha doesn't hesitate before charging into the crowd and taking multiple kids down with kicks to their faces.
    Wanda waves her hands in the air using her red, captivating magic to throw hostiles out of her way.
    I don't know where Tony and Vision are but I can hear them from above attacking from above.
   I suddenly feel a pair of small, clammy hands wrap tightly around my neck. I try to rip them away only to feel them squeeze tighter. Bringing myself onto one knee, I rotate my body around delivering a fatal punch into the hostile's skull.
   The thing that was strangling me flies backward, hitting the ground with a thud. I spin around to get a look at what attacked me from behind. Crumpled, broken, and bloody on the ground is the figure of a little boy no older than ten. Automatically feeling guilty, I check for a pulse. With a sigh of relief I back away knowing I didn't kill him.
    I then pull one of my pistols from my boot and begin shooting and punching my way through the kids to get to Steve and Sam.
   It's not like it's a hard fight, but there's just so many of them it's hard to advance when twenty brainwashed children are attacking you all at once.
   Feeling another one of the little monsters jump on my back I reach around and rip them off with my metal arm. I throw them onto the ground and shoot down some of the kids in front of me.
   When I shoot them I don't shoot to kill. I only shoot to fatally wound them. If I killed them I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Well, it's not like I could sleep at night anyways.
    Looking up, I see that we are holding our own pretty well against the army. You're probably thinking that's obvious because we do this thing all the time and they're just kids. You're forgetting the fact that there's hundreds of them and seven of us.
    More and more keep showing up out of nowhere. Thousands upon thousands of brainwashed children flood in from surrounding streets and buildings.
     In my surveying of the battle, something significant catches my eye.
     Tony is caught on the ground, his Iron Man suit being ripped apart piece, by piece, by the kids. I look over at Steve who is still cuffed up tightly against the building.
    Deciding Steve can wait I begin punching, kicking and shooting my way over to Tony. About halfway there I'm stopped by a scream.
     I turn to see Wanda still on the other side of the street being restrained by the same cuffs as Steve. She is very obviously trying to use her magic but the cuffs seems to be making it impossible to do so.
     Not far from Wanda I see Nat being wrestled to the ground by a extremely large group of kids too.
    As I turn slowly in a complete circle I can see every single last Avenger has been captured and restrained in some sort of way.
    Every one of them. Except me.
     And I'm not even technically an Avenger.
     Suddenly I hear the croaky, deranged laughter I've come to know oh so well.
    Out of the crowd Marcus Williamson appears in front of me. I lift my gun a little, my finger tickling the trigger, so it's easier to shoot if I have to.
     "Well, must I say James, I'm mighty impressed. You seem to be the only one able to resist my pride and joys. I feel like a proud parent seeing how much they've accomplished." Williamson says gesturing to Avengers they put in restraints.
    I raise the gun quickly almost pulling the trigger when Williamson yells out in protest.
    "STOP!" He screams sounding frantic. He tries to recompose himself realizing how frightened he must of sounded. "S-stop." He repeats. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
     Williamson then pulls a remote control with a single button out of his pocket.
    "If you shoot me I will make sure that the very last thing I do before I bleed out is push that button. And you know what this button will do, Super Soldier? This button will blow up every single last one of these kids destroying you and your friends!" He yells holding up the button with his finger on it ready to push it.
     I look around at the others for support but find none. In all of their eyes I see it. The doubt. They don't think I can do this. They don't think I'll be able to think quickly on my feet and save them.
     What if I can't? A voice in the back of my head says.
    What if you screw this up and kill yourself and the Avengers all at the same time?
     I lower the gun. They're right. I can't do it. They don't need me. They're the Avengers. They should be able to get out of this themselves.
    I lift the gun once again.
    Except this time I press it against my temple.
    I look Williamson straight in the eye.
     "See you in Hell." I whisper.
   Closing my eyes, I pull the trigger.

                        •••••••••••••••••••

Dear readers,
     All of you guys must hate me by now! I haven't updated in freaking forever even after promising I would update sooner! On top of that I leave you guys on a huge cliffhanger! I'm hoping I'll have time to update sooner so you won't be caught in the suspense for too long. I would promise but I don't want this to turn out like last time. Oh and happy holidays everyone! Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, a holiday I didn't name or nothing at all, this is my present for you. I'm also sad to say that this story only has two more chapters left. It's been an adventure writing this and I thank you like always  for the endless support.

Sincerely,

@unsuspicious_nerd