Chapter Text
Steve sat on the couch in the communal living room of the Avengers tower, his legs folded, one on top of the other. His dirty blonde hair was sticking at all angles as he did not bother to damp it down the moment he woke up.
It's Sunday so that means team bonding day. Unless there's a matter of national security. Or international. Either way works.
"Somebody's eager today." Tony said as he passed a cup of black coffee to Steve. He lied down on the couch. His head cushioned against the arm rest while his feet automatically found their way on top of Steve's folded legs.
"If Clint ended up here first, he would have put on the next instalment of that movie." Steve replied, his face contorting with a grimace. He really didn't want to put himself through the pain of watching that again. Those are the kinds of things that make him question why he even bothered to save the world from ending.
"Yeah, I know. Human centipede isn't exactly my kind of flavour as well. So what are we gonna watch today? Please don't tell me it's one of those black and white movies released in the 1940's. Save those for Bucky." Tony pleaded, not taking his eyes off the Starktablet from where he was reviewing his latest project but Steve still saw the pout he was sporting from this angle.
"Save what for me?" Bucky grumbled; still drowsy from sleep and yawning his way to the open kitchen.
He popped a cookie in his mouth that he found sitting on the table top, not even caring that it was half eaten already.
Maybe he didn't notice. His face lightened up in a small vibrant smile when he saw that there's left over coffee, still steaming from the pot.
"Hey Stark, can you take a look on my arm later? There's something stuck in between the plates. I tried tinkering with it but the thing is too small. I can't take it out." Tony made a noise that Bucky took as a yes. He'd just drop by the workshop later on if Stark forgot about it.
Soon enough, Clint and Natasha joined them in the living room. Both of them were wearing oversized jumpers, more so on Natasha which highlighted her skinny legs even more.
She sat herself down on the space between the coffee table and the couch, her knees drawn together to her chest while she cupped a mug of hot chocolate with her two hands.
Clint on the other hand, decided to sprawl himself; stomach flat on the floor, while complaining about women and their barbaric way of waking people up.
"I slapped you on the cheek because you wouldn't stir. Be thankful I didn't splash you with cold water." Natasha flatly said after taking a sip of her hot chocolate. If somebody could pull off a scary look while being cute at the same time, it would be Natasha.
"Whatever. At least everybody else here loves me. Ooooh, I smell bacon. Barnes! Give me some of those bacon strips you're eating." Clint shouted.
Bucky just gave him a glare which Clint returned with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
"Go get them yourself." Bucky replied with a huff then proceeded to step over Clint to sit himself beside Natasha.
"Grumpy." Clint commented but finally hauled himself up to get some breakfast.
"Where's Bruce?" Steve asked. Bruce was usually the one up early in the morning almost every day so Steve found it quite unusual that he's not in the common room yet.
"Oh he's in SHIELD headquarters. He said that he needed to look something over. Research about bacterial DNA and stuff. Something about needing a second eye." Tony answered and set his StarkTablet on the coffee table.
"So, are we gonna watch anytime soon?" Steve gave Tony a smile and squeezed his leg.
"Friday, can you please put on The Hobbit? The first one."
"Of course, Captain Rogers."
"Thanks Friday."
Immediately, the production logos started rolling and they all settled in. But Halfway through the movie, just when the dwarves and company was about to enter Rivendell, Steve's phone rang.
He looked down and frowned. Fury doesn't usually call them on a Sunday unless there's an emergency.
"Sorry guys. Don't bother pausing the movie." Steve gently placed Tony's feet on the couch. Tony definitely didn't whine on the loss of contact.
"Rogers." Steve answered as soon as he was in the kitchen, the sounds coming from the movie faint and unclear.
"Captain Rogers. I apologise for calling on this day but I need people from your team for a mission briefing. It's HYDRA."
* * *
Nick Fury looked at the array of new information on the projector screen that Agent Coulson handed to him yesterday night. There seemed to be something fishy about the whole situation. He just couldn't point his finger at it.
Upon the door squeaking open, he tore his gaze away from the screen to see Captain Rogers, Stark and Agent Romanoff striding in.
"Good Afternoon, Sir." The Captain greeted him.
They sat stiffly on the round table, all their attention centered towards the screen. Fury wasn't surprised with their reaction. Ever since the Avengers have defeated Thanos, Rogers and the Winter Soldier had been working with SHIELD to dismantle the remaining hydra base operations while the others offered mission support from time to time.
As far as Fury knew, they had been successful. Hydra had been quiet for the past year and this had been the first time they've received intel pointing back to the said organisation.
"Gentlemen. Romanoff." Fury nodded his head as acknowledgement.
"A hydra base facility was discovered in Detroit, Michigan. According to our agents, it is abandoned." He showed them photographs of the facility as he spoke. It resembled an old corporate office site that was built on the 1960s with about 10 floors.
Fury noticed the way Captain Rogers was scrutinising the photos one by one.
"If I may Sir, what makes you think that this is actually a hydra base?" Fury raised his eyebrow at the question. With no further ado, he replaced the photos with a series of documents that shows a questionable and concerning set of data.
Take the piece of a writing journal propped on the top left corner of the screen, for example. It contains some gruesome details of results that scientists have found regarding a 'subject'. Whether that pertains to a human subject or not, Fury didn't know. It probably is. Hence, why he called for this meeting.
"That journal entry dates back to just three days ago." Stark pointed out, quick as always.
"That's quite recent. You think Hydra's still using this place?" Romanoff, on the other hand, was quiet. Her restless eyes darted back and forth between the photos as she took in the specifics of each document.
"Yes, exactly. These were found in one of the meeting rooms on the 8th floor. The site has been under constant monitoring right from when it was discovered by SHIELD agents. No unusual circumstances were reported. Just an ol' abandoned building in the eye of a normal citizen." Fury explained to answer Stark's question.
"So what I want you to do is to find out how exactly Hydra is hiding itself from plain view. Gather as much information as you get. Remember that this will be a recon mission. If you encounter hydra agents, do not initiate contact. We will formulate a plan upon your arrival with the intel. You will leave this afternoon. Am I being clear?"
"Yes Sir." Captain Rogers answered.
* * *
Natasha lifted her gloved hand to adjust her earpiece so that it fitted snuggly inside the hollow of her ear.
'Take the east wing, Nat.' Cap said once they've landed the quinjet in a secure landing site.
So here she was, treading along a decrepit hallway; the sound of her heels clacking against the floor tiles echoed to fill the deafening silence. It was dark, only illuminated by the occasional rays of sunlight coming from rooms with doors ajar and windows opened.
Each intake of her breath was controlled. So far, there doesn't seem to be anyone within this side of the facility but that didn't mean anything. In fact, it made the black widow even more alert. No place could be utterly quiet as a grave.
Natasha flipped her head to the side. She heard something squeak not far away from her.
With her forefinger tucked readily against the trigger of a glock 26, she crept forward to the room where she thought she heard noise and pushed the door open. Inside, there were bunk beds covered in what supposed to be white but were now dusty grey plain linen.
If one inspected more closely, you would notice the slightest hint of bloodstain in some of the beds, blurry and almost pink which resulted from a poor attempt of washing the evidence off. It could have been mistaken for some kind of discoloration.
But that one looked recent.
Natasha flipped open the cabinets which stood opposite the beds. They contained medical supplies. All freshly stocked.
Then there were voices. Natasha could hear a faint conversation taking place between five, if not four people, from a distance.
Looking around, she found a vent opening secured by square plastic grilles situated at the top right corner of the room from where she was facing. Wasting no time, Natasha used a rickety wooden table as a leverage to prop herself up.
She yanked the grilles out, carefully so, to minimise the noise to avoid giving her position away. With a grace of a cat, she slid inside the tube. It was big enough that it allowed her to crouch herself in.
As long as she kept her shoulders squeezed forward, she would be able to navigate easily with no problems. The inner structure of the building was thin enough that it allowed her to hear the people talking. Without further stalling, Natasha followed where the direction of the voices lead.
"Hey fellas. I confirm that this place is definitely not abandoned." Tony heard Natasha whisper through the earpiece. "I've got some scientists here talking about some kind of project. I'm following them through the vents."
How was he not surprised? Another day, another hydra project.
No doubt that's probably related to the journal entry that Fury showed to them earlier this morning.
"Good. Tell us when you get a solid location." Cap replied.
Tony had been tasked to create a detailed blueprint of the facility. So far, he had only gone through the west wing and most of the south wing. There had been a number of science labs and storage rooms that he had taken note off. Friday added them to the visual plan he had displayed on the monitor of his faceplate.
The facility had some sort of a crucifix layout with other rooms branching out from the main wings but what putting Tony off was that none of the rooms contained evidence that screamed HYDRA. Maybe he was just not observant enough but from a civilian's perspective, this would definitely look like a normal office building.
Almost too normal.
At the moment, Tony was in some kind of tech room. It was littered with rows of computers that look so outdated, it made him resist the urge to wince. Tony looked around. Not really sure what he was looking for, but he believed that he was skilled enough to notice something out of place and shouldn't be here.
Sometimes, people get that feeling that something was just not right. Like, there's something that they're missing. That, right now, had been what was bugging him ever since he's started going through floor by floor in the west wing.
He couldn't pinpoint what exactly was causing him to feel this way but it was putting him on edge. And he didn't like being on edge. It made him paranoid and shaky and hypervigilant. That always never end well.
To take his mind off the distraction, Tony decided to make use of his hands. He opened all the drawers visible from his position.
Just to check if there was something important that might prove to be useful for the mission and hoo boy, would you look at that. There he found a blueprint located securely inside a hidden compartment in the drawer.
Spreading it out and eyeing it for detail, Tony confirmed that this is indeed a blueprint of the facility as it looked very similar to what he had managed to procure just a few minutes ago. One thing he did notice though was that there's a few more storey levels beneath what was supposed to be the ground floor.
"Friday, scan for any functioning signals within the facility." Tony ordered.
"I detect radio and microwaves originating underground. Looks like it's blocked by a strong electromagnetic shielding too. Other than that, Nothing else Boss."
Damn. There's an underground facility.
Tony had been too focused figuring out a way to access the underground facility from the blueprint that he wouldn't have felt the presence of two hydra officers pointing their rifles at him if he didn't hear the crisp click of a trigger safety being unbuckled.
Their eyes locked.
With a quick flick of his wrist, Tony blasted the two officers down with his repulsors before they had the time to think of pulling the trigger. Both of them slammed hard enough against the concrete wall; he's pretty sure he heard their spines crack.
"Tony, status report." Tucking the blueprint inside one of the weapons compartment of his suit, he exited the room. And sure, there were more officers coming down his way. All their rifles raised and ready to fire.
"I've got people coming to get me, Cap. Don't know where they came from." Tony replied.
There were too many of them. He had no choice but pull out a cannon to fire chunks of them. Fury's instruction about initiating contact be damned. There was no point maintaining the stealth status of the mission.
"I'm on the same boat, Tones. I just happened to start putting them down quietly at first."
"That'll probably be my fault, guys. The scientists led me to an underground surveillance room. One of the cameras was showing Cap's location. I needed to get rid of them but I wasn't quick enough. One of them managed to push the alarm button before I nicked him in the neck." Tony heard Natasha's response lined with disdain because someone managed to get one up her.
Boy, did they get sloppy. They all know full well to stay out of the cameras. Is this what staying around in the tower for a couple of months does to them?
Tony found himself in the middle of the intersection and yeah, there are some hydra shits coming from all four directions. Now he's got bullets targeting him everywhere. Some of them bouncing against the armour with a metallic clang.
He fired his repulsor beams. Left and right together first, before he twisted his waist to fire at the front and back. The nutjobs were hit straight to the chest with a resonant blare. The impact pushed them back to collide with the other officers behind them while all their weapons dropped down to the floor like a unified surrender.
The next thing Tony knew, he heard a series of consecutive grunts of pain accompanied by a familiar reverberating clang of a metal shield. Cap caught his shield back with his left hand. Looks like the west wing would be rapidly clearing.
"You better hurry up, boys. You gotta see something quick. It's not pretty." Tony heard Natasha mutter through the earpiece. With his back turned away from where Cap was, Tony threw his mini missiles, the impact of the boom resonating through the hallways.
"Give us a minute."
* * *
It had been quite easy for Natasha to clear out the area she was in. As soon as the alarm system roared through the facility, she hacked through their systems to gather any intel she could find. Hydra officers were galloping outside but they were stupid enough not to actually check the inside of the surveillance room.
Once Natasha decoded the encrypted protection, she found a daunting folder screaming the words "PROJECT: INFINITY" in red bold letters. Windows and windows of dated journals popped out of the screen.
Hydra was keeping someone in captive. More specifically, a girl. Probably not older than 18 the most. This recon task had just turned to a rescue mission whether Fury liked it or not.
So now here she was in a lab room that only had non-combatant scientists who were hiding behind a panic room due to the alarm. She did not hesitate to grenade the entire place. She knew that the girl was imprisoned in a highly reinforced cell so there's no point trying to be careful not to harm civilians. Cap would probably burn this facility two times over anyway.
Unfortunately, one of the scientists managed to survive the blow. He was kneeling, one side of his face burnt raw but he was laughing. His eyes were twinkling with malice. Natasha slowly crept forward towards him until her dagger was only an inch apart from his neck.
"You do not know what you're getting yourself into." He said in between puffs of his laugh. Natasha slashed his throat, blood spurting on her face.
She felt something touch the side of her elbow before she even had the chance to put down her dagger. Being the trained assassin that she was, she swiftly twisted her waist with her armed hand slotting in place beside the man's jugular.
"Easy, Nat. It's just me." Natasha lowered her weapon once she realised that she was about to cut Cap.
"Sorry."
Tony and Steve followed Natasha through the rubble where she showed them a vault door secured behind two layers of criss - crossing metal grilles. Natasha passed the pieces of documents she printed from the surveillance room to the Captain.
His stance hardened, his gaze focused intently on the words spelt in every page. Deadly silent, he passed the documents back and bent the grilles apart open with his bare hands. Just enough that they could cut off the security wires, making the lockdown of the door to malfunction.
With the sound of metal scraping against metal, the vault door parted open from the middle.
"Natasha, Tell Fury we're bringing the girl in. I'm gonna get her to the quinjet. Tony, destroy the whole facility down once I get her to safety."
And just before he was about to enter the vault, Cap added, "Make sure it goes boom."
Everybody was on the move.