The Story Book

  Cont... Darling waited for Bucky to come out of his third session in a fancy memory jogger machine. Since finding out his subconscious was home to dangerous information, they were forced to find and copy it. The more they knew, the better they could predict who was coming for them.  Tony called the machine BARF. He had the stupidest acronyms.  Bucky was always shaken when he came out, but they were making lots of progress. Shuri estimated that they would only need five sessions to find it all. The bad part was that part of his mind would have to relive the worst parts of his life. She'd equated it to dredging in fishing. You'd pull up a lot of fish or useable information, but you'd also pull up a few unwanted bits. It was hard. But it was working.  Harley sat with her silently as he worked on his tablet. Darling had given up on the book she'd been trying to read, so now she was watching him do rapid math on his tablet, trying to keep up.  The door opened sudde...

  Cont... The first thing Everett Ross did once T'Challa left was to watch the recording.  The second thing he did was read through all the provided files.  Then he rewatched the recording. Then he made a mental note to try and get Sergeant Barnes out of the heat they'd been putting on him since the Berlin incident.  After that, he dug through his cabinets for a burn phone he kept for things like this. Then he called the Attorney General. Once he explains the clandestine nature of the information he was holding and how it was imperative that it not get out, they arranged for him to fly back home under a guise in the next week.  When he hung up, he then decided to listen to the recording a third time. Listening, he was struck by the person Ross was talking to sounded young. Feminine but not Romanoff, not Maximoff either. Too young to be in the conflict two years ago. It might be one of the Wakanda agents, but there was no accent, and Everett didn't think T'Challa...

  Cont... Everett Ross put the last of the dishes he'd used for dinner into the dishwasher. He loved his job, but the relentlessness of the paperwork machine that was the UN's terrorists prevention task force was draining.  Going into his living room, he dropped into his chair and flipped on the news. It wasn't special, just a report of an old abandoned mining facility that burned in Australia. It was so remote it had only recently been discovered, burned to rubble. Everett was about to turn channels to his favorite soap opera when there was a knock on his door.  Groaning, he got up, "Who is it?" Coming to his door, he checked the peephole. The door was open in ten seconds flat.  T'Challa smiled, "How are you, my friend?"  Everett sputtered for a moment, "Good, come in, come in!"  T'Challa came in, followed by two Dora guards. "Nice place you have." The king commented, looking around the remarkably spacious apartment.  "W...

  Cont... Bucky watched as the sports car pulled into the garage at 12:30 at night. He turned and headed to Tony's lab, where they would put the recordings together. The boys seemed fine. They were talking a mile a minute, working and putting all the recordings together. Darling, on the other hand, was sitting in silence, watching intensely.  Bucky walked over, "You okay?"  Darling looked up at him, "I will be. When this is over."  Bucky pulled her into a hug. Letting her bury her face in his chest. Darling sniffled, "I just want it to be over."  "I know, I know." Bucky said quietly, rubbing her back, "It will be soon."  "So we have it decrypted?" Rhodey asked, coming down into the lab with Tony in tow.  "Almost. Have to clean up the quality." Peter said.  "So we were right?" Tony asked excitedly.  "Yeah, you were." Darling nodded with a small smile.  "Will it be enough?" Rhodey aske...