Who Am I? » [Stucky]

177. Precious Time

There was a nearby yell from through a wall, barely audible over the spitting roar of gunfire and the clicking of empty shells spooling on the floor.

"Stand clear!"

Steve and Bucky wiped out Sam, Maria and at the call. Tony blasted a missile at the wall that sliced them apart, throwing out a billowing cloud of choking black smog with particles of dust and rock cascading through it. Rubble pelted the corridor as it was blown into smithereens and a crumbling crack echoed through the tunnels. Through the newly jaggedly ruptured wall sprinted Tony followed by Skye, Ward, Bobbi and Lance; jogging through the smoke coughing and hacking. Their torches shone through, recharged and projecting rays that speared the darkness and deterred it like a blade.

"I've never been so pleased to see you in my life," Bucky spluttered, eyes watering from the irritating hot fog filling his airways with fiery grit. Beams of pure white light blitzed his retinas and he squinted up at their rescue team.

Tony's squad hauled Steve's to their feet, reuniting with tight hugs and sighs of relief.

"We need to keep moving," Tony coerced with Steve. "Or we're going to be blown apart just like that wall..." His visor upped for negotiations, his face untouched by cuts or bruises unlike his battered team, tatty from the assault like old dolls with cracked porcelain faces and limp limbs.

"We need to find Nat and Clint and their squad, and restore communications with Coulson if we can," Steve debated, putting one hand aside to propel Bucky back to his feet. Bucky hunched over and gave a few gagging coughs whilst clinging to Steve.

"Already working on communications, trying to re-route every frequency onto a low def unmonitored wavelength; put us below the radar and I've charged up everyone's earpieces from my suit which repels EMP. Here..." He zapped Steve's ear with his fingertip, making him wince at the static sting. "You're welcome. What general direction did Clintasha and co run off in?" Tony's mask locked down again and the facial lighting ignited.

"Tony you may as well have been speaking Russian to me," Steve blabbed in return. "Down that hall, follow the open doors and take the stairs wherever they go..." Steve blithered all in one strung together stream of words that blurred at the pace, feeling the time fading as seconds danced by.

"Actually, change of plan... Barnes, Rogers, Wilson, you're coming with me on a rescue mission. Maria, take all of the non-avengers back to the point of entry and hold the room for us. We'll aim to get back in time, but if we don't, get your asses' outta there." Tony saluted her with one strictly pointed finger.

Sam and Maria made a goodbye far too short for comfort, slinging their arms around one another in a comforting bear hug where Wilson drowned her with his lanky form. Sam smooched Maria's forehead tenderly and tucked a dirtied dark curl behind her ear. "Be safe," he whispered sincerely and squidged her hand and left.

"Don't die on me Wilson or I'll kick your ass in hell!" Maria called down to him as he crashed through the corridor clogging tresses of smoke.

"Four minutes," Whitehall reminded them, his booming voice commandeering the chaos, his hoarse laughter was enough to sour their insides and encourage them to fight against the clock more than ever. Anger was their motivation and it was burned into every step, every throb of their racing pulses and every bitter breath.

In perfect coordination they ran head on into the fire, flames had sprung from rooms to their left and right and the sizzling heat nipped at Steve and Bucky's exposed flesh. The inferno was consuming the wooden fixtures: doors and the flaky dried wallpaper that peeled from the cold stone beneath.

Tony charged the best he could in the metal can that enclosed him before jetting himself at them and gunning down tier after tier of foot soldier whilst soaring. Bucky and Steve took a more manual approach: engaging in close quarters combat. Boots pounded breakable bones and fists mashed malleable flesh.