Chapter One - Opening Gambit
Clara looked across the room, the small group of young adults moving a series of pallets that were piled high with boxes, filling trucks waiting outside. There was a stale smell in the abandoned building - even with the soft breeze moving through the many broken windows, and Clara felt a slight shiver in the chill.
The one she needed, however, she couldn't see. Maybe she wasn't on this supply run, or maybe she was sat in one of the drivers seats, but either way the plan stayed the same. She'd get in one of those trucks, and she'd find where it was that the Flag Smashers were hiding.
As she took a step forward, a soft whirring reached her ears, and now through a reflex carefully trained into her, Clara suppressed the soft purple glow that wanted to reach out for the device. She looked toward the source of the sound; a small red drone staying well above eye-level as it scanned the room.
Clara looked between the Flag Smashers and the drone, recognising that the drone didn't belong to them, and it was instead watching the group the same as she was. 'It's actually White Wolf,' Clara heard someone mumble, her sights landing on a dark-haired man ducking around the corner of a doorway. He found a spot behind metal racking to obscure anyone's view of him, and made certain that his eyes never moved from the group.
'All right, I'm inside,' he said, presumably to a team through an in-ear comm piece, 'therefore, way ahead of you,' he added snidely. 'It's not great, but very doable.'
Another man snuck into the room behind him, the first twisting to apparently see where he had appeared from. Clara knew almost immediately who the second man was, Peter having shown her his footage of the Berlin airport many, many times.
A frown grew in her expression, however, having not realised who the Falcon was with until she saw the glinting metal arm. It was the Winter Soldier. Ex-Winter Soldier, technically. But hadn't he been pardoned on the grounds of him maintaining a civilian position? Why was he running a mission alongside a government contractor?
'Hello, how are you?' James Barnes asked, voice laced with sarcasm.
'Good. What did I miss? Nothing,' Sam bit back.
'All right, let's go,' Barnes said, shifting to leave from behind the racking.
Sam stopped him before he took a step out. 'No, wait.'
Clara looked over as they broke out into a hushed bickering, and she saw a small flickering on Sam's left forearm. She took some careful paces towards them, her curiosity getting the better of her. As she had guessed, he had been the one controlling the small drone, the colours of the tech matching his outfit.
'There's two people,' Barnes pointed to the trucks, losing his patience.
Sam raised an eyebrow at his statement, raising his left arm, and tapping on the screen attached to the glove. 'You only see two?'
Clara looked over his shoulder, standing between the two of them and peering at the heat signatures shown by the live feed being carried by the drone. 'Let's see what Redwing sees... Oh, look at that. How many people you seeing now?'
Barnes sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, wanting to get what they were there for over and done with. He folded his arms over his chest, pressing his lips into a thin line as frustration nipped away at him.
Sam continued, his voice just a little patronising as he took joy from angering the other man. 'One, two... oh, here it comes again. Four-'
'Five,' Barnes clenched his jaw, speaking through grit teeth and cutting Sam off in a feeble attempt to get him to stop talking.
'Yeah, five,' Sam nodded, as if congratulating a child for knowing how to count. 'Oh, hey, there we are. How many are we, Bucky? Let's have a look. There's me, and you, and...' He trailed off, looking from the screen and, as discretely as he could manage, to where Clara stood. His muscles tensed as he did, reacting to an instinct to fight the unknown. A creeping sensation ran down his spine, the feeling of being watched growing by the second.
To give credit where credit is due, Clara didn't notice the subtle glance, only looking up when the silence had stretched just a little too long. 'Buck,' Sam said.
Barnes gave him a sharp look, eyes flitting from Sam to the screen as he muttered. 'I told you not to...' He trailed off too, seeing what Sam had noticed moments earlier.
Eventually, a little too late, Clara saw it as well. A distorted silhouette between the two men, the obvious outline of her body morphing slightly as her own frequencies interfered with the device's scanners. She appeared on the screen as a shadow of static, but it was quite clear there was another person standing between the two men.
In the blink of an eye, the beat of a heart, and she found herself being lifted from the floor, a pressure tight around her throat. A second of panic as her mind processed what was happening, and she kicked out, her feet connecting with something, a soft thud sounding, but neither man flinching to acknowledge any amount of pain she may have caused.
A quick calculation, and Clara decided that there really was no way out of this, not unless she spoke to them. She couldn't do that though, because at that particular moment she couldn't breathe, and it's hard to speak when that's the case. The only other option coming to mind, was to let them see it was her.
It wasn't as though they'd go shouting her identity from the rooftops, was it? But even if they would, did that matter? She was there for one reason, and one reason alone; when all was said and done, would she still be able to reach the conclusion she was looking for? Or would they stop her doing so? Could they stop her doing so?
Clara had more than a few advantages she could use against the two men - as long as she wasn't caught off guard a second time - and there was a very good chance they wouldn't be prepared for any one of her ploys or tactics. Hell, even those training her didn't know how to deal with half the things she could do. Though, that was mainly due to the fact that she didn't show them all of what she could do.
If she got out of Barnes' grip, they wouldn't be able to catch her again. At least, not without a few hidden tricks of their own.
So, becoming visible was the way to go, it seemed.
Not a great option... but also the only option available to her.
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