Taming The Ghost

Chapter 25

My sneakers pushed off of the railings on the fire escape as I launched myself into a free-fall, hoping to God that I would land on the roof of the building opposite me. Luckily for my existence, I touched down perfectly, tucking and rolling to my feet with precision and immediately breaking into a sprint.

I looked over my shoulder to see Bucky land and begin to follow me when, from the roof of our hide-out, I saw a black figure take the same leap that we had just made. As the figure soared across the space between the buildings, their silhouette became clearer and I started to be able to make out the details of the mask they were wearing. There were identical slivers of some sort of silver metal running down their face and into the body of the suit that glinted in the sunlight. Their eyes were covered by opaque lenses and what appeared to be ears, which lay flat and streamlined, adorned the top of their head.

As they hit the roof with a crouch to soften the landing, metal claws slid out of their sheaths on top of the suit's gloves. Bucky must have seen me freeze because he turned his head to look behind him as well, and when he caught on to what I'd seen he stopped dead in his tracks. Without hesitation, Bucky lunged at the stranger and the fight that ensued was intense. I would have loved to jump in and help but everything was moving so fast, I barely had time to think when I saw Steve make the same jump we had made just minutes earlier. His hand was pressed to his comms on his left ear but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Seconds later, Sam came soaring around the corner of the building at the same time that a helicopter flew in over our heads, swinging in behind the fight and opening fire, presumably aiming at Bucky.

Instead of finding their target, who was now pinned to the roof, the bullets shot from the helicopter found the back of the man dressed in the glorified catsuit. As soon as the first one hit, he turned around to the sight of Sam slamming his feet into the tail of the chopper, sending it spiralling into the building we had all just been in, and giving Bucky just enough time to kick his attacker over his body and onto the roof behind him as he rolled to the side, grabbed his bag and broke out into a run once more.

"Laura, move!" said Bucky assertively, catching my arm and guiding me along with him as he edged closer and closer to the edge of the building with nothing but Romanian skyline ahead.

"Buck, do you know what's below us?" I called from behind him

"No, but I can imagine it's better than what's up here."