Return | Bucky Barnes x OC | (4)

Chapter 4- Answers

1946, New York

Clara tapped her foot on the tiled floor as the dial tone from the phone almost sent her into overdrive. The Nitramene was still pulsating from where she had left it on Howard's dining room table after Clara had practically sprinted back. Her plan of action was easy: go home, find the scrap of paper where Jarvis had left his emergency number and ask him.

"Oh thank God," Clara sighed as Jarvis finally picked up.

"Miss Lewis, do you have any idea what time it is?" Jarvis snapped.

"Yes, yes I do and believe me, I'd rather be asleep. But it's urgent." Clara quipped back, pleading with Jarvis to stay on the line.

"It had better be, my wife and I are usually listening peacefully to the radio before we turn in at this time of night." Jarvis whined. "What is it, Miss Lewis?"

"I got one of Howard's inventions back. Nitra- something."

"Nitramene?" Jarvis corrected.

"Yes! That's the one." Clara answered triumphantly.

"That's good news. If that had fallen into the wrong hands-"

"It's moving! And glowing and there's steam coming off it!" Clara panicked.

"Oh my-" Jarvis shouted, Clara had to take the phone away from her ear and whince.

"-God it's been weaponised!" Jarvis practically screamed.

"Well what do I do?" Clara asked, her voice raised in panic. "Jarvis! Tell me!"

"Stay there, try not to move it. I'll be there in a jiffy." Jarvis announced quickly and hung up before Clara could get another word in.

"Wait- Jarvis!" Clara panicked but it was too late. "Should we call Peggy?" She trailed off, frantically searching for the scrap of paper with her name and number on.

*

"So, Jarvis," Clara began as she, Peggy and Jarvis crowded around the Nitramene on Howard's table, "Recognise anything?"

"That's the Nitramene." Jarvis confirmed. "But I've never seen it weaponised. Stark hasn't done that yet."

"Yet." Peggy snapped under her breath but just loud enough for Jarvis to here.

"So who's weaponised it?" Clara asked. Jarvis stared at the bomb solemnly.

"I can only think of one person who'd have had access to this." Jarvis admitted, "Anton Vanko."

"Vanko?" Peggy asked. Clara recognised that name. "Stark's partner?"

That's where she'd heard the named. Anton Vanko, the man who would betray Howard and defect to Russia. He would later work with the Soviets. And Clara knew better than most what they were working on...or rather, who.

"I think it's time we pay him a visit."

*

Anton Vanko was scarily like Howard. They both had brilliant minds and would stop at nothing to achieve their dreams. For Vanko, that dream was making as much money as possible.

"So, Vanko. What do we have here?" Jarvis asked as Anton Vanko was peering at a sample of the bomb under a microscope.

"Oh that's clever, very clever." He kept repeating.

"Yes. What is it?" Peggy asked, her voice a perfect mix of scathing and passive aggressive.

"It's a lanthanum carbon alloy. Very clever, very clever indeed but very unstable."

"Unstable?" Clara asked, "Are we safe?"

"Oh, yes. We're quite fine." Vanko said absentmindedly, still staring down the microscope. He didn't even look up to acknowledge her.

"Right." Said Peggy, raising her eyebrows. "But if it's unstable," she continued, "It can't have come far. Whoever manufactured it must be close by or they'd have to have stabilised it."

"You're smarter than you look, doll." Vanko remarked.

"Thanks." Peggy spat through clenched teeth. "So how many companies around here are capable of producing this?" She asked Vanko, who finally moved away from the microscope and lay out a map across an empty lab bench.

"There are only three refineries around here capable of manufacturing this. You know, petrol and stuff, but the only one around here that could do this much damage, is this one." He said, pointing a meaty finger on the map.

"The Roxxon Corporation." Clara read, "What's that?"

"They're a company." Jarvis explained calmly, "One of the largest in the world actually. Whoever's behind this, they're powerful."

"You're telling me!" Vanko exclaimed as he once again walked over to the microscope and enthusiastically peered down it. "Just look at all the radiation that's coming off this!"

"Radiation?" Jarvis asked timidly. "Is it...volatile?" He asked in barely a whisper.

"Volatile?" Vanko exclaimed, practically laughing, "No. Active, yes. This thing could sure be dangerous at some point. Just look at all the vita rays coming off it!"

"Vita rays?" Peggy asked, something flickering in her eyes- recognition. "I know what we need to do, come on!"