You're My Mission

Two targets. Confirmed death within ten hours. Pierce couldn’t have possibly made it sound any more urgent, and he had assembled a team for me immediately. Finally all of Hydra’s searching had given them a lead to present to me: Sitwell had been taken by Captain America, which meant that we could get a location on our targets. Now I was sitting in the back of a ute as it sped down the highway after Sitwell and his captors, blonde hair thrown into a messy ponytail that currently did nothing to prevent it from flicking into my eyes. The Winter Soldier was by my side, ready to jump into action once the driver got us close enough, his goggles providing his eyes with shelter from his own whipping hair.

“Here! You might need it!” I shouted over the wind as I held out a silver sphere that was an electronic grenade, one of Hydra’s latest toys. He took it and placed it in a compartment on the back of his vest. “If you need anything, you come to me and only me.” His shielded gaze looked up and I wished I could see his remarkable blue eyes and catch a glimpse of what he was thinking.

The ute suddenly jerked to the side and I realised we were in position. I nodded at the Winter Soldier and he stood, leaping from the vehicle with skill and landing atop the dark blue car. He threw Sitwell from the car and while I stared with shock at the gruesome kill, he continued to go after his targets.

Peeking over the ute’s roof, my stomach lurched when I saw him be flung from the car, but I should have known better than to worry. He was damn near indestructible, and I hardly had time to blink before he was back in control of the situation. It only took a few seconds for the Winter Soldier to crash the car, and as the Hydra jeep he was standing on came to a stop, I leapt from the moving ute with a rocket launcher. He came straight to me and carefully took the weapon before raising and aiming it.

I covered my ears.

After the rocket exploded, I pulled the automatic rifle from my back and aimed for the cars nearby. I saw a flash of Black Widow’s red hair and aimed to her side, having no intentions of hitting her despite having a reputation for being a good shot. I walked forwards with the other Hydra agents, following the Winter Soldier and providing him with cover so he could do his job. My heart thudded in my chest when I realised I couldn’t see Captain America. He was my best shot at pulling this off. Without him I was going to fail Fury.

He fired the rocket launcher again. Black Widow disappeared and I lowered my gun a little, searching for any sign that she was still alive, that there was still some hope. The Winter Soldier instead headed for me, holding out his rocket launcher. I swapped it for my rifle and he shifted to the edge of the bridge, clearly thinking she was still breathing.

Gunfire came from below and he suddenly ducked. Had he been shot? I dropped the rocket launcher and rushed to his side, spotting the crack on his goggles.

“Talk to me! Are you okay?” I demanded as I crouched next to his still body, uncertain of what to think. Thankfully his hand reached up and tore the broken goggles from his face, revealing to me his blue eyes that were now filled with determination.

I was shoved out of the way as he stood, firing recklessly down below until he was confident enough to stand away from the cover. The other agents approached him for orders, and I realised that I was still on the ground and definitely not looking in charge.

“I’ve got her,” he declared to the men. “You find him.” I drew a pistol from one of my holsters at my hips and the men looked to me. After I gave a nod of confirmation, they took their positions and the Winter Soldier leapt from the bridge. Though he could survive the fall and did an impressive job at crushing the car he landed on, I knew my legs wouldn’t take the impact so well. Instead I waited for one of the men to secure a rope down before I followed, which put me at a bit of a distance behind the Winter Soldier. I couldn’t let him out of my sights in case he needed me, or in case I needed to stop him.

I trailed him but kept my distance, hoping to not put him off or be spotted by one of the good guys. After all, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. With gritted teeth I watched as Black Widow attacked the Winter Soldier, quickly disarming his robotic arm but that only made his temper worse. I struggled to keep up with him as he stormed after her.

He suddenly stopped.

Before I could say anything, the gun had been fired and I guessed by his confident body language that he had hit her. I broke into a run, not going to stand by and allow him to kill the Black Widow, a renown agent. As I drew in a breath to order the Winter Soldier to cease fire, Captain America came leaping out of nowhere and engaged in combat with him. With the Winter Soldier occupied with his only formidable enemy, and the other Hydra agents clearly down since Captain America was alive, I picked up his discarded rocket launcher and sprinted to where I had last seen the bob of red hair.

In a crouch, I rounded the car and almost bumped into the redheaded spy. She froze, still in shock from her fresh injury and unable to defend herself.

“Foxtrot sent me,” I said lowly and her eyes widened with understanding.

“What division were you?” she asked but I shook my head, not having anywhere enough time to discuss how I was trained for my undercover SHIELD operation.

“I’ll explain later, if I have the chance,” I promised. “I’ve been undercover and I’m in charge of the Winter Soldier. I’m the only one who can pull him away from this fight right now. Once I get into position, you need to fire this near him. I’ll pull him out. You guys clearly need to regroup.”

“Understood,” she said with a nod, taking the rocket launcher. I crept as quickly as I could around the mess of cars, getting as close to the fight as possible. A flying man came out of nowhere, but before I could process that unbelievable event, the rocket exploded. Ears ringing from the noise, I lunged forward through the smoke and debris and grabbed a hold of the one thing I could clearly see: a shining silver arm with a red star stamped on it.

“Let’s regroup, Soldier!” I yelled, tugging the arm. His body was initially reluctant, but then he must have come to his senses and he ended up outrunning me away from the rubble.

He took a break behind a car once he had rounded the block. It was as though his feet just gave way and he had to rest. Concerned, I jogged to a stop and prepared myself to ask what was going on, but I was distracted by his lack of a mask.

Leaning his back against the side of the car was a handsome man. He had a square face with a five o’clock shadow dotting his sharp jawline and surrounding soft lips that were pulled down into a scowl. Beneath his captivating blue eyes was a perfect nose that completed his practically impeccable good looks, and I realised that perhaps the reason why Pierce didn’t want me to see the man behind the mask was because he was damn fine.

“Did I fail?” he asked. As he looked up at me, his long hair fell back off his face and I found myself temporarily speechless. He was drawing me in with those eyes again, emotion swirling in them and begging for me to help him.

“No,” I replied after glancing at my watch. There was still time to complete the mission. We hadn’t failed Pierce yet.

As I considered what to do, an agent rounded the corner and gave me a huge grin.

“We’ve taken them prisoner. Report back to base,” he informed me and I nodded before diverting my attention back to the Winter Soldier.

I wondered what would be in store for the both of us. Would we be punished for not executing our mission properly? After all, the targets were still alive. Deciding I didn’t have enough time to find any Fury loyalists to aid us in an escape, there was no other choice but to return to the Hydra base and deal with whatever was to come.

“Come on, we need to go,” I said lowly as I offered my hand. The Winter Soldier grabbed it but hardly used it to help himself off the ground. I had a desire to let my fingers linger, to talk to him as we walked to the nearest Hydra vehicle, to find out who he was, but I resisted. Seeing his entire face was going to have to suffice for today.