LIGHTNING ▷ BUCKY BARNES [UNDER EDITING]

6| BREAK FREE

4 days later Valerie finally got the hang of her powers and learned to control them. Steve took her for an occasional run to get her in condition meanwhile Natasha taught her the beauty of martial arts. Tony was in his lab most of the time so luckily she didn't have to deal with him and the same went for Thor. She hasn't seen him in the days that she stayed at the tower and that was mostly because Tony didn't let Thor come anywhere near Valerie because hell would break loose, again.

It has been 4 days since she came knocking on the Avenger's door. 4 days of waking up early in the morning to train and then to run. 4 days of worrying over Winn and his wellbeing. Worrying so much her mind wandered through her oldest most painful memory as she punched the punching bag absentmindedly, not stopping for a second as her knuckles on both of her hands bled. Red blood dripped from the punching bag to the floor and she came back into reality, punching the bag one last time with her electric powers making the bag fly all the way towards the opposite of the room.

"It's running time..." Steve mumbled as he entered the training room, looking down at the punching bag on the other side of the room before his blue eyes landed on her open knuckles, "but I guess we should patch you up first."

•••

The sun came up as Steve and Valerie were running. The horizon transformed into a soft orange color as the sky above it turned a soft purple. The park they were running in was almost empty outside from a group of elder people in their wheelchairs feeding little pigeons with bread crumbs. "On your left," Steve grunted as he passed by Valerie in a flash. The man was fast, probably faster than the fastest man alive. Valerie sighed in defeat before she broke off into a faster run, almost passing Steve yet she wasn't fast enough. "On your left," she grunted, pointing her finger at Steve's feet as a wave of electricity went through his foot making him stumble and fall on the sand. Steve laughed as he watched the women continue her run as he tried to get up. Once he got up he frowned deeply, looking around hastily to see if there was any sign of the woman. But there wasn't. All Steve saw were trees and the sand path they were running on.

Steve's heart raced like a speed car, immediately thinking the worst has happened. "Valerie!" he yelled, his eyes searching around the place for any sign of her but there were none. It was deadly silent in the park and Steve broke off into a hurried run towards the Avengers tower.

•••

Valerie opened her eyes softly. She thought she was in her room because of how dark it was. But she realized she wasn't when she tried to stand up. Her hands and legs were tied against what she guessed was a chair. Her mouth was covered with a cloth, muffling her cries for help that nobody would hear.

She tried to break free of the chair but even after numerous attempts, it didn't make any difference. Her head hung low as a couple tears spilled down to her lap.

And just then the lights flickered on. Her eyes had to adjust to the light first but she saw a blur of two men. One in front of her and one just heading out of the room. She huffed against the cloth in her mouth and the man in front of her untied it from her mouth. The white cloth fell to the floor and Valerie lazily looked up at the masked man. She wasn't about to cry for help or ask him what was happening. She knew exactly the answer to those questions. Instead, she spits on his black leathered suit and just as she predicted, he backhanded her hard.

She chuckled amusingly, tears pricking in her eyes once again as blood filled her mouth. "Take off those goggles, you look ridiculous in them," she mumbled, spitting the blood in her mouth on the ground. Natasha once punched her so hard in the face she fell unconscious, the backhand was nothing compared to that.

The man obeyed to what the woman said. When the man took off his goggles his blue eyes radiated hard. They looked almost similar to Steve's. The man proceeded to take off his mask that covered his mouth and nose too and Valerie jaw's dropped at the sight of the familiar man.

"I know you."

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