Sweet Like Arsenic (B. Barnes) ✔

11 | Petunia

   Natasha's face grew stern as she gathered the team in the centre of the quinjet. "Steve and I will be at Tower One, while Tella and Bucky find Petunia Canto. We will rendezvous at the courtyard in the centre at five twenty."

   "So all I do is to copy the information from the computer server, correct?" I asked, looking over to Steve.

   He nodded. I took it as the answer to my question.

   "Alright, we're getting close to tower two." Kelsey barked, slowing the jet so the dynamic duo could jump off.

   The door slid open, and Natasha stood at the edge, about to jump off. "Good luck, guys." She shouted over the wind. With that, she was off the quinjet and gone.

   "Don't do anything stupid," Steve warned as he passed Bucky and me, running to the exit and leaping off the quinjet after Natasha.

   He was gone before Bucky could reply.

   "Buck, Tella," Kelsey ordered tightly from the front of the jet. "Get ready."

   I followed Bucky to the open door, grimacing when I saw the drop. "Oh god, I can't do this," I exclaimed, feeling my heart beat against my chest like a bouncing basketball. "Kelsey, you go instead, fuck this."

   "You're going, deal with it." Bucky looked at me as the wind blew his hair back like a VS Sassoon advertisement. "Here's your window, jump."

   "I- I can't-" Knowing that I had to jump whether I wanted to or not, I closed my eyes, stepping off the jet into nothingness.

   "Here goes nothing," I whisper to myself as I dared to open my eyes, remembering to open my parachute.

   "Dona!" Bucky's voice came from above like a screeching siren.

   I missed the building's roof by a metre or two.

How did it happen, Tella? I berated myself in my head. Guess I have to take the front entrance like a regular person.

   I landed in the empty car park of the Hydra complex. Ditching my parachute in a bush, I notified Bucky on my position with the earpiece.

   We both paused for a second, and Bucky was the first to speak. "Dona," he said, calling me by my code name, "you know that you can't get up to Canto's office on your own, right?"

   I rolled my eyes. "You have no faith in me."

   "Yes I do, but not much," Bucky replied, ending the call without a proper goodbye. Uncultured swine.

   I straightened my catsuit and pulled my ponytail tighter. Cracking my joints, I reached for my gun, nodding contently when I checked that it was loaded.

   The bright sun reflected off the fancy water fountain when I strutted past it, nodding at myself when I heard a muffled yell from behind.

   I whipped my head back to see Kelsey shoot two heavily-armed guards who had come up behind her. "Jesus, what took you so long?"

   I walked to the entrance slowly for her to catch up with me. "I had to make a few calls," I replied simply, pushing the double doors open.

   The bright lobby was teeming with busy looking agents shouting commands at each other. We somehow managed to slip into the crowd of men and women unnoticed. The whole place looked normal- until a squadron of Hydra officers sauntered out of the lift lobby near us.

   "That's our ride up." Kelsey nodded in the direction of the wide corridor subtly, starting to walk quickly towards it.

   I followed her, maintaining distance from each other to further decrease the chance of both of us being caught. She entered lift closest to hers, signalling with her eyes for me to enter after her.

   Kelsey opened her mouth as she was about to say something, but I was quick to silence her with a hard glare. Since we were forced to remain in silence in fear of microphones in the walls of the elevator, we couldn't communicate. At least, not about our mission to capture Petunia Canto.

   A long gruelling minute later, the lift opened with an almost comical ding! alike regular office elevators. A cluster of anxious-looking men and women entered the lift, some carrying laptops while others had manila folders in their hands.

   The man that walked in first, that seemed to be the boss, gave Kelsey and me a long look, as if trying to figure out who we were. Appearing to give up, he asked us who we are in a polite but heavily accented voice.

   "Donatella Meyers," I replied curtly, making an effort to sound haughty. "I'm visiting an old friend."

   His face morphed into a shocked and respectful look, and his coworkers turned to get a sight of the famous (or infamous) assassin.

   "Apologies, ma'am." The man shook as he spoke, looking to companions who simply smiled at me. His balding head glistened as the lift door opened once again so that the light from outside shone onto his head.

   "This is my stop, fellas." I pushed the Hydra workers out of the way gently, leaving the lift.

   "Thank you, ma'am-"

   Before he could finish, the elevator door slammed shut.

   Taking a few cautious steps with Kelsey beside me with a loaded pistol in position, we nodded at each other once, then ran to Petunia Canto's lab.

   That was when we heard the familiar sound of Bucky's voice.

   His conditioned hair came into view before his whole body appeared from one of the two smashed-open doors, looking overly annoyed.

   He emerged from the lab with Petunia Canto's arm firmly in his metallic grip, an annoyed look on his face. "You came late, so I got her without you two."

   "Hey Petunia," I ignored Bucky and said, greeting the old 'friend' who'd experimented on me a lifetime ago. "How's life?"

   "You should be grateful." Petunia spat, blonde hair askew as she thrashed against Bucky. She was no match for him—she's a scientist, not a soldier. "I made you who you are now."

    "I'm grateful, alright," I replied, watching Kelsey walk forwards to take Petunia from Bucky. "I'm grateful for all the pain, and I'm sure Bucky is too, right?"

   Petunia narrowed her eyes at me, smirking when I frowned. "I'm sure your brother is grateful where he is now because of you, too."

   They found out that I was working with Shield, of course they did.

   I turned to look at Bucky, noticing how tense he seemed from the tick of his jaw and the way he kept on touching his metal arm subconsciously.

   Kelsey was just as eager to leave as us. "We're done here. Tella, copy their data with the flash drive I gave you on the Quinjet. Now."