Chapter Text
Bucky turned the corner quickly, sweeping the muzzle of his gun along with his gaze. Nothing.
“Clear,” he said quietly into his comms.
“I’m afraid I no longer have a visual on you, Sergeant Barnes. The camera access was disabled. I will likely be in the feed within 3 minutes,” came JARVIS in his ear.
“Stand down, Buck. Wait for Nat to get to your location.” Steve was using his Captain voice.
Bucky grumbled. Yeah, not happening. Someone had fucked with the cameras. Someone didn’t want them to see what they were up to. He couldn’t risk whatever Hydra was trying to pull. He made his decision in a split second, easing down the hallway silently. Heading towards the labs and data centers.
“Bucky, confirm position,” Steve said.
“2 minutes to feed access,” from JARVIS.
“Barnes, report!” Steve was frustrated, but Bucky could hear the worry in his voice slip through. He always worried, even a year after Bucky was cleared for missions with the Avengers. Bucky saw the looks he got any time they were prepping for a mission involving Hydra. Bucky turned off his comms.
Bucky got to the doors at the end of the hallway, listening for any sign of Hydra goons on the other side. He heard something… typing?
He sucked in a breath and rammed through the doors, eyes first searching the left for movement. He caught something in the corner of his eyes, sweeping immediately to his right, ready to pull the trigger.
There was nothing. A chair spinning.
Bucky furrowed his brow. How was the chair still spinning? That momentum would mean someone had just gotten up from it.
Double checking that the room was clear, he made his way to the desk.
“I have gained access to the system, Sergeant. There are no signs of any Hydra agents on the cameras.” JARVIS really was great to have around, even if Bucky stupidly went in too early sometimes. Okay, often.
“J, check this computer first. I think someone was here, I want to know what they were doing.”
“Of course, Sergeant.”
Bucky looked around again. This was nothing more than an office. Diagrams and plans hung on the walls. There was a file cabinet in the corner, unlocked and open. Someone had rifled through it, in a hurry it seemed. What were you looking for? And why didn’t you know where it was? Something felt off to Bucky. Why would someone in Hydra not know exactly where to look? Had someone else…
“The file reference in the master file table is gone, and so is the actual data itself on the disk, sir. Both were deleted.”
“Okay,” Bucky answered, not entirely sure what JARVIS meant.
“There are files from this computer that have been wiped. I am unable to recover anything.” JARVIS sounded frustrated. Can AIs be frustrated?
Bucky turned his comms back on. “All clear. JARVIS said the computers have been wiped,” Bucky said over the comms.
“Ooh somebody’s in trouble,” Barton sing-songed back.
“We’ll talk about it later. Keep the comms clear,” Steve clipped back. Great, another talking to. Bucky rolled his eyes and relaxed his stance. Natalia should be down here in…
“There’s a large section of files missing from this cabinet.” Bucky didn’t jump. He didn’t sweep around and shoot. He didn’t blink. Does anyone need to know that his heart rate spiked? Nah.
“Паучок, ты должен?” Bucky grumbled. [Little Spider, must you?] The corner of her mouth tipped up, but Nat gave no other sign of Bucky’s exasperation of her sneaking up on him.
“We’ll pack it all up. See if we can piece together what’s gone based on what’s still here.” Right. Going through paperwork seemed like fun. Just what Bucky wanted to do with his evening.
Something was nagging at him. Bucky looked up. No vents. How did they get out? Floor vents… none. Bucky ran his hand over different parts of the walls.
“What is it?” Nat asked.
“There was someone in here when I came in.” Nat pursed her lips. He knew she was going to tell Steve, and Steve was going to give him another talk. You should wait for your teammates, what if they had been hostile, what if…
“There’s only one way in and out. Are you sure?”
“That chair was spinning,” Bucky responded. He walked up to the chair and spun it some. It went around once, twice, and slowed to a stop before it made a full revolution a third time.
“That’s not a lot of time to get out,” Nat sounded unsure. Maybe she didn’t, Nat was hard to read. Bucky hoped she trusted him. He trusted her.
Bucky just grunted back. “I’m going back to the Quinjet.” Picking up the computer, he turned and walked back through the doors. Tony should be able to figure out what was missing, he was good at technology. Better than how he was with people.
“Clear in the garage,” came Sam’s call over the comms. “Pretty nice tank, though. Shame we have to destroy it.”
“Can we keep it?” came Clint.
“No.” Steve, Sam, and Nat all answered at once.
“Aww, tank, no.”
“I’ll make you one, we can test it in range at the compound,” Tony piped in cheerily.
“Sir, while the building is heavily armored for many training scenarios, I’m afraid you didn’t include tanks in your calculations,” said JARVIS.
“Aww, tank, no,” Tony answered.
Bucky smiled. Well, internally at least. The Avengers had become his friends, had given him a home. And they were all little annoying brothers and sisters, forever up to no good antics. Despite the missions, and the pranks, it was peaceful. His therapist, Dr. Raynor would tell him to express these feelings verbally to his friends. Did they know how he felt?
“Finish up guys, SHIELD is here for cleanup,” Steve called.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Steve was at the head of the table, talking about how Sam and Tony had flown in and taken out all the Hydra operatives on the roof. Bucky really should be paying attention, but instead he’s reading the report on his tablet that JARVIS had sent him. Details about the computer he’d confiscated.
Except it was frustratingly not much. It was like someone had burned away one specific section of data. Everything else was in tact, nothing seemed out of place.
What did they want? Lots of potentials raced through his head. Worst case scenario, they wanted information on the Winter Solider project. Best case scenario… was there a best case? This couldn’t possibly be anything good.
A rubber band hit him square in the nose. He immediately glanced up to glare at Clint.
Clint was focused on Steve. Steve, who was talking about the tanks.
He looked at Natalia, who despite also looking at Steve, was not focusing on Steve. She shot Bucky a look that clearly said ‘pay attention.’
“Why would they only take some files.” Oops, did he say that aloud?
All eyes looked at him, and Steve paused his commentary.
“Did JARVIS find anything with that?” Steve was using his patient dad voice. He didn’t like being interrupted much, but he loved that Bucky was feeling comfortable enough now to interrupt.
“No.”
“Barnes said someone was in the room when he went in,” Nat supplied. “His cameras didn’t catch anything, his body was facing the other side of the room. There was no one by the time I got there.”
“What is in all the files they didn’t take?” Sam asked curiously.
Oh, that’s a good question. Not that he’d ever tell Sam that. “It’s all just…files on projects they’ve tried. Research, test subjects. You’d think there would be a Winter Soldier file but…that’s not there.”
“Based on previous files we’ve obtained from Hydra on the Winter Soldier Project, the missing data chunk appears to be larger. If they took that, they also took more.” JARVIS was a gem. Really.
“If someone is trying to replicate the serum, we need to stop them,” Steve had a fire burning behind his eyes. “I think we need to double down on Hydra. Not give them a chance to pop back up again before we’re there. Agent Coulson, where are we on…”
Bucky rubbed his eyes and tuned the debrief out again. Great, more brainwashed super soldiers with an affinity for guns, just what he needed.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Here he was again. Another day, another Hydra base to destroy.
Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern…This was the third base in two weeks that they’d gotten to after someone else.
How were they getting in? While Hydra was on red alert every time the Avengers showed up, they seemed to not know where the attack was coming from. And yet, the offices and data blocks were always ransacked.
You know what files were never there? Yep. His.
What else? What else is he looking for? Bucky slammed the file cabinet drawer closed.
“What did it do to you?” Sam joked.
“Ha ha,” Bucky glared back.
“Cheer up Buckaroo, we’ll get there first next time. JARVIS already has two more bases pinpointed for us to raid.” Tony was typing away on the computer. Looking for something that Bucky knew he wasn’t going to find.
“Oh.” Tony seemed surprised.
“What?” Bucky was across the room in three steps.
When he looked at the screen, there was a bright yellow pop up with little animated confetti falling across the screen.
Thanks for cleaning up the mess.
Sorry I had to leave the party early.
Next time I’ll stay to mingle.
“What the hell is that?”
“Well, obviously whoever is getting here first knows we’ll show up,” Tony answered.
“Is that…a unicorn jumping over a rainbow?” Bucky asked incredulously.
“Looks like it,” Tony laughed.
Who the hell is this person?