I spun Buck's present to me between my hands. I still hadn't opened it. I really wished he was here now. A day later, now two days before Christmas, and I still hadn't opened the present from a good friend. What kind of person was I?

   Before I could convince myself to wait for Buck to open it, I tore the paper off. The box inside had clearly had the label torn off of it. I opened it. 

   Inside there was a picture of me leaning over a shining arm on my old desk in Steve's hideout, painting a red star on the shoulder. I smiled, remembering Steve taking the picture and laughing as I ignored everyone, laser focused on building Buck's arm. On the back Buck had written, I never got around to thanking you for that.

   I turned the picture back over and kept looking at it.

   "What on Earth is an arm doing in front of you?" Cisco leaned over my shoulder, making me jump.

   "That is me painting the star on Buck's metal arm," I said. "I had to build it for him after he destroyed his original one."

   Cisco raised an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't good at building things."

   "When you work with a bunch of superheroes you kind of need to learn these things." I set the picture down on my desk.

   "You never told me what you did when you weren't here," Cisco said, walking back over to his computers. "Now you should because we don't have anything better to do."

   "I learned to copilot a Quinjet! That was pretty fun. I got to find The Avengers a headquarters just outside New York-"

   "The Avengers are right outside New York?"

   I glared at him. "Don't interrupt, but yes. Most of them are. Steve, Buck, Natasha, Sam, Clint, Scott, and several others, I'm sure I'm missing a few, are basically staying as far away as they can. Most of them are in DC I think."

   "Oh." He suddenly looked up. "Copilot a Quinjet?"

   I lounged in my chair. "Oh yes. That was fun! Even if we were getting chased at the time."

   My phone started ringing. I picked it up and saw that it was Barry. I answered. "Hey Bear. What do you need?"

   "I don't know. We just found something really weird and I have the feeling the guy isn't gone," Barry said.

   "So you need Spark and an excuse to leave so you can get Flash too? What kind of guy and what kind of weird?"

   "Someone who possibly carries a backpack with tanks of poisonous gas inside. I have no idea how he does it, but there's a random lady who just died by breathing some sort of poison."

   "Something tells me one of us is going to end up breathing this stuff."

   "Uh, huh. I've got my excuse, see you in a minute or less."

   "Let's hope it's better than the eggnog Joe makes," I said with a laugh.

   Barry snorted. "It'd better be worse. He makes good eggnog."

   "Says the only person besides Joe who likes it," I hung up, assuming he was done talking and looked at Cisco, who was completely ignoring me. "Hey Gizmo... Gizmo!"

   Cisco looked up. "What?"

   "Barry's coming."

   "Mkay." Cisco looked back down at his computer.

   I rolled my eyes at him. I didn't tell him why, I kind of assumed that he didn't care just now. He was clearly absorbed in whatever he was doing. 

   I started flipping through some of the important tech I'd hacked into a couple years ago. I stopped when I found an oddly named thing that I didn't remember. It was called TWSTFMR. What the heck? I opened it up and found a file that said, To future self. This is The Winter Soldier's Tablet For Memory Restoration. You're welcome me. I smiled. I'd completely forgotten it existed. I wondered if Buck even still had it.

   Hello Bucky. I don't know if you still have this or not, but I'm just wondering. It's still online!

   Barry's shoes squealed as he stopped. "You aren't ready to go yet," he said accusingly.

   "When you have super speed you take your time because you already do everything fast." I turned my chair around. "I thought you knew this already." I shot up, changed, and sat back down again. "See?"

   Barry sighed. "Follow me." He changed and shot away with me close behind.

   We stopped in front of the mall. I frowned and tilted my head at Barry. Barry met my eyes. "You get the bottom floor, I'll get the top."

   "Right, Gizmo you paying any attention at all?" I asked.

   "Uh huh," Cisco said a little noncommittally .

   "Not completely," Dr. Wells said. "But Caitlin and I are, so don't worry."

   I shot into the mall, going through all of the shops before finding a way to get into more secretive places. I had just reached a storeroom filled with boxes when Barry's slightly frantic voice came through my earpiece.

   "He doesn't have a backpack!"

   "Where are you?" I asked.

   Barry gasped and started coughing. "On my... way back to S.T.A.R."

   Worry filled my mind and I ran full speed all the way to S.T.A.R. Labs. There was a loud bang half way there, letting me know I'd passed sound. Less than a second later I stood in the Cortex.

   Barry was struggling for breath against Cisco's desk. Cisco was getting the hospital bed set up as fast as he could and Caitlin was hurrying back with a syringe.

   "Can't breathe," Barry gasped.

   "Yes, we had sort of noticed," I said. "What can I do?"

   Caitlin stuck the needle into Barry's arm and took a blood sample. "Get him on the bed and give him oxygen. Don't let him die."

   I picked Barry up, set him on the bed, and got everything in place before Caitlin had reached the equipment she needed. "You really think I'd let my brother die?"

   Barry's breath had evened out, but he wasn't conscious anymore.

   Caitlin shook her head. "I didn't say that."

   Cisco looked at me with a smile despite the chaos that had just happened. "You made a sonic boom on the way here."

   I couldn't help myself. I grinned.

____________

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I finally got around to finishing it. XD Took me long enough!

If you have any characters you want me to add I will destroy any walls that block my way. I was actually thinking of adding Aiden. :D :D For all you who are wanting another superhacker. XD

May the wind blow strong in your sails! Have a good day (or night) Avengers!

I even destroy the barriers in my author's note. :O The shock (sarcasm intended).