Possibility of Tomorrow - 11

Cont...

 The next time they needed saving, they had actually gotten themselves captured. They had been separated to ensure compliance so when Darling but into Steve's cell, he was understandably concerned.

 "Where are the others?" Steve gasp the instant it had clicked that she was actually here. 

"You first. Come on." Darling said before turning to go.

 "No, you don't get it; they'll kill the others!" Steve rushed after her. 

"I think they're all very concerned with the multiple explosions outside right now." Darling waved her hand, stepping over a body that Steve wasn't positive was still breathing. 

"We'll need to move fast." Steve caught up to her. 

"Now you're getting it. Left up here." Darling nodded, grinning beneath her veil. They turned the corner and ran into two soldiers. Darling choked out one with her legs before full-on landing on the second guy before Steve could even formulate a plan.

Steve just quirked an eyebrow, "Dang. Nat taught you well."

 "Always." Darling said playfully, opening the door next to them and turning to face the room, "This is a breakout. Make it or break it." She flounced off, practically skipping away from the two guards and the open door, leaving Steve just standing there in the middle of the hall.

 "Darling?" Bucky's delayed shocked reaction was pure gold making Steve laugh.

 "Well, you heard her, make it or break it." 

Bucky was up and moving faster than Steve had been, "Where are the others?"

 "They're next. Keep up!" Darling called from down the hall. Steve and Bucky shared a grin before jogging after her. 

"You know this is becoming a tradition, us getting in over our heads and you digging us out of it," Bucky remarked, coming up behind Darling as she picked the lock to a closet. 

"You know I'd say I hope not, but I think you're onto something there." Darling mused, popping the door open.

 "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." Steve sighed, shouldering Sam's pack as they grabbed their gear out of the closet. 

"Let's call it good for now." Darling slid on the Widow bites and closed up the closet, "What is Wanda up to these days?"

 "I don't know, something about going home for her birthday." Steve shrugged. 

"Well then. Tell her hi next time you see her." Darling turned the next corner in time to see a guard come flying out of the room. They came into the sight of Natasha choking out the other guard with her legs, holding his arm in an immobile position.

 "Oh, hey guys." Nat flipped her hair out of her face as she looked up at them from her spot on the floor. There was a crack, and the man screamed. In a blink of an eye, Nat was using both her legs behind the guy's back, propelling him across the room before hopping up and dashing out. 

"Nice." Darling nodded, taking off down the hall.

 "Where's Wilson?" Nat asked, taking her stuff from Steve.

 "Next. Then we blow this joint. How's that sound?" Darling called behind her. 

"Where's my other gauntlet?" Nat demanded, ignoring the question. 

"Down the hall to the left, then a right. I'm gonna borrow this really quick," Darling held up her left hand with the Widow Bite gauntlet on it, "Thanks." With that, she vanished down the hall, going right. 

Nat shook her head, "Unbelievable." 

"Hey, at least she said thanks." Bucky pointed out from behind her as he watched their six. 

"At least." Nat scoffed, jogging down the hall, "At least." 

"Now you just sound mocking." Bucky scolded.

 "That's cause I am. Thanks for noticing!" Nat snapped.

 "Good grief." Steve sighed. 

The three followed Darling's instructions; when they took a right, they were confronted with a rather concerning problem. One of the guards had Sam securely in his grasp, and the gun digging into the back of his head made its point fairly eloquently.

 "Where's the other one?" Bucky asked, aiming his gun carefully at the guard's head.

 "I got one of them before this one got me," Sam said with a strained smile.

 "Shut up." The guard tightened his grip. 

"Not bad, Wilson, you're getting better." Steve slid a small throwing disc from Nat's pocket, so he wasn't completely useless.

 "I'd say we have about seven minutes before this whole thing hits the fan. Whaddya say we take a ride?" Nat asked, smiling dangerously as she tried to get a good aim with her gauntlet.

 "Shut up!" The guard snapped, "You aren't getting out of here. There's a whole army between here and an exit. You'll be dead. And so will he." Sam's hands went up farther as the gun dug into his scalp. 

"Buddy, take it easy. Who said we were using an exit to get out of here?" Bucky pointed out diverting attention from Sam.

 "What?" The guard frowned at him. A second later, his body seized, going stiff as Darling slammed him from behind with the Widow Bites. He dropped like a sack of potatoes leaving Sam standing there. 

"Dang, girl. A little warning next time?" Sam shook his head at the unconscious guard, "That could have been me!" 

"Or you could be dead. Take your pick." Darling retorted, sliding the gauntlet off, "Here you go." 

Nat caught her other gauntlet with a huff, "Happy to help." 

"Alright, so how are we getting out of here?" Steve asked, handing Sam's fear off to him.

 "Magic," Darling said straight-faced. 

"This I can't wait to see," Bucky murmured, following her down the hall to a dead end.

 "Now what?" Nat asked, "We got five minutes." 

"Now we walk through the wall." Darling dug something out of her pocket.

 "You got explosives on you cause I sure don't." Sam quipped.

 "Won't need them." Darling placed four smooth pebble-like objects and the wall in the shape of a door and pressed them down. They sealed to the wall and made a glowing purple plasma screen. 

"What is that?" Steve asked, staring at the glowing door in bafflement.

 "Dark elf technology from London. There's a guy in New York who repurposes alien tech and resells it. He's got some pretty cool stuff." Darling nodded, stepping through. They followed and found themselves standing outside the building behind some bushes.

 "Wow." Bucky grinned. 

"Nerd," Sam muttered. 

"Yeah, well, what's gonna be even cooler is the explosion this building is about to be subject to. A true work of art. Getaway vehicle is due north by the road, can't miss it." Darling said, shoving the Elven tech into her pocket. She took off, leaving them just standing there.

 "Well, better get moving." Steve nodded, heading into the forested area. They dove into the heavily foliaged area heading north. They found their getaway vehicle, and Bucky couldn't help but laugh. 

A bakery truck that was bubble gum pink. Sam was muttering up new swear words as they all piled in and headed back into town. Sam stopped grumbling when he realized the truck was also stocked with baked goods. 

Bucky wasn't sure if he was disturbed or impressed by how many pastries Sam put away. By the time they made it into town, everything was gone from the truck. The icing on the cake was that the safe house they had chosen happened to be an abandoned bakery. Darling either had a wicked sense of humor or was really good at planning back-stopped cover stories. Bucky was betting both.

 She was waiting inside, helping herself to a butter croissant watching TV off her computer. 

"How much money did you spend to stock that truck?" Bucky asked, grabbing a cronut from the box of baked goods she had. 

"More than I would care to admit. Check this out. We made the news." Darling turned her computer so they could see. It was aural footage of a smoking hole in the ground. 

"Dang, woman, how many explosives did you use?" Sam grabbed a maple bar from the box.

 "A lot. Get your grubby hands out of my pastries!" Darling snapped, glaring at Steve, who had his hand in the box. 

Steve sheepishly extracted his hand a small apple cake in his hand, "Sorry?"

 "No, you're not." Darling sighed, turning to Nat, "Would you like some since I am obviously opening a bakery for all?"

 "No, thank you. I think I ate my body weight in macarons in the truck." Natasha smiled.

 "Well, now that we have even more food than we need, I've come across a disturbing problem." Darling opened up files on her computer for them to see, "They were playing with Ivan Vanko's work. Specifically the Expo Project."

 "Oh bloody brilliant." Natasha huffed. 

"What's the Expo Project?" Steve asked, frowning at the scientific project notes that Bucky was enthralled with.

 "The Expo Project was Hammer Industries illegal and failed attempt to recreate the Iron Man tech. Instead of that, they created drones that blew up the Stark Expo back in 2010. Before you came out of the ice." Darling explained, pulling up some of the footage from the attack.

"I remember that. It was all over the news. There wasn't a television station that wasn't covering Tony Stark that year. He was a mess. A new story almost every week." Sam nodded, scrolling through old newspaper articles from that time in his phone. 

"Well, to be fair, he was dying." Natasha leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. 

"Wait, dying?" Sam looked up quickly, "I never heard that." 

"Not a lot of people did. His arc reactor was poisoning him. He didn't think he was going to live till the end of the year. Why do you think he gave Rhodes a suit?" Nat pointed out. 

"Gave? If I recall, he and Rhodes got into a knock-out drag-out fight while in the suits that ruined his Malibu mansion and crashed his super drunk birthday party." Sam said incredulously, "Rhodes confiscated the suit before the military took it. Tony didn't give it."

 "Potato, potahto," Natasha waved her hand dismissively, "We both know Tony could have kicked butt if he wanted to."

 "He didn't want to." Steve put it together. 

"No, he didn't." Natasha shook her head, "He made Pepper CEO of his family company, so it had a good future after the whole Stane fiasco and let his best friend take one of his next-generation suits so that the government would have it, but it would be in safe hands. He was settling his affairs. No one knew." 

"What does that have to do with Vankov?" Bucky asked, leaning back on his chair.

 "Yeah, didn't all that stuff go into the secure holding facility?" Sam nodded.

 "There's been a series of break-ins at different facilities all across the world that house some of the techs we've beaten over the years. Ultron bots, helicarrier parts, stuff like that. I think that's where they got the notes for the drones." Nat explained. 

"How close are they to creating the drones?" Steve asked, looking at some of the pictures Darling had pulled up.

 "I'm not sure, but if they do make these drones, it'll put us in a whole new age of warfare. Our drones now are hard to get ahold of and even harder to get out of the red tape. If they can make one of these drones, it can do more than a whole fleet of our drones now. It'll be a bloodbath. It'll be too much." Darling weaved her fingers together, "No one will be safe." 

"We need to shut it down," Bucky said firmly.

 "We need to call Tony," Steve said deep in thought.

 "I agree. This is his enemy, and he'll know the most." Natasha nodded. 

"Hold up, are we forgetting the guy threw us all under the bus and would gladly toss us all in the Raft if we set foot on US soil, let alone contact him?" Sam pointed out.

 "I don't think so. He's getting more and more antagonized by Ross. Soon he's going to do something in retaliation. He's not where he was a year ago." Natasha shook her head. 

"Tony's anger is hot and fast, but it's not as long-lasting as you think." Steve agreed, "He'll be more annoyed than anything, but he's been wanting to get rid of Ross forever." 

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Bucky sighed.

 "At this point, yeah." Steve dug in his backpack, pulling out his phone. 

"Wait, are we sure about this?" Sam looked around.

 "Do you have a better idea?" Steve asked. 

Sam thought for a moment before sighing, "No." 

"Than this is our safest bet." Steve held out the phone to Nat, "Here's the address. Send him copies of what we've found." Nat grabbed it and began tapping away.

 "I hope you know what you're doing, man," Sam said quietly to Steve. 

"Yeah," Steve sighed, "Me too."

 Darling wandered outside after everything was decided up to the roof as she looked up at the stars. She could find the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt easily as she relaxed. 

"Are the bears out tonight?" Bucky asked quietly, sitting down next to her. 

"Yes, big and little." Darling nodded as he settled down. 

Bucky hummed, staring up at the stars. They sat in silence for a long time before he spoke, "The constellation Sagittarius was a gift from the muses of the arts in Ancient Greek mythology." 

Darling shifted so she could see him and the stars as she listened, "Really?" 

"Yep. They had Zeus make it in honor of the satyr Crotus. He was devoted to the arts, and it's said he created applause, which the muses liked over verbal praise. And for that, he's commemorated in the stars." Bucky nodded as he leaned back.

 "How nice." Darling smiled, "Where exactly is it?"

 Bucky leaned over so she could see and pointed, "Right there." 

Darling hummed as she found it, "That's a nicer story than so of the others."

 "Yeah. Greek mythology is weird." Bucky agreed. 

Darling snorted, "That's one way to put it." They both chuckled quietly. They fell silent, watching the silent stars go by.

 "So, where are you going next?" Bucky ask, not looking at her. 

"Tokyo," Darling said quietly, not willing to break the moment yet. 

"That's one headache of jet lag." Bucky looked over at her, "You good with that?" 

"I don't know what's gonna be harder, that or all the lights." Darling admitted looking over, so they were looking at each other, "I won't be able to see the stars." 

Bucky hummed again and looked up, "Not in Tokyo at least." 

There was a long pause before Darling sighed, "No, defiantly not in Tokyo."

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