Winter & Summer: A Marvel Story in an Alternate Universe!

Chapter 11

Harajuku. In over a hundred-something-odd years, Bucky had never seen anything like it - crowd-packed streets teeming with life and energy, as if powered by the flashy neon-colored signs that pointed to fashion stores and cafés, all while bubbly electronic music pulsed relentlessly from some unknown source overhead.

Bucky learned a new word that day - kawaii, and if anything, Harajuku was the definition of it. So much color. So many characters. As in, actual characters - cartoons were rampant here, from the plush toys sold in the outdoor markets to the art on building walls. Even things that didn't need to be cute - a hotdog, an umbrella, a trash can -  were turned into such by the simple addition of two dots for eyes and a line for the mouth. Everything had a face. Everything.

As they weaved through the streets, Bucky swore Summer's eyes doubled in size, sparkling the same way the anime characters' did in the pictures. She "ooh"-ed and "ah"-ed at every turn, as if she could just eat up the whole district, like it were made for her.

But, like always, neither had come to Harajuku for sightseeing. Following their mission in San Francisco and subsequent lead pointing them to another group keen on bombing the International Diplomatic Headquarters (or "IDH" for short), Summer and Bucky were now tracing the whereabouts of two men who supposedly played a role in the planned attack.

Using handheld tracking devices - that could be easily mistaken for phones because, who wasn't taking selfies here? - Bucky and Summer scanned the area, waiting for their screens to blink with an outline of their suspects.

"We should probably split up," Bucky suggested. "This place is massive; we could be here all night."

"No kidding," Summer said. "I'll take north, you take south?"

"Sure."

So the two went their separate ways. Summer's device seemed to indicate that at least one of their men was close, but couldn't pinpoint exactly where just yet. She continued walking, scanning around but still not picking up much of anything.

Then, she walked passed a corner - and stopped, metal legs dialing backward as her eyes caught sight of the absolute most adorable display of ice cream cones shaped like little animals. She sighed, eyeing them longingly, as she watched a small child being handed a cone topped with a bright green scoop that looked like a frog.

Oh, what the heck? Summer thought to herself. She looked around, took one last scan of her surroundings and, finding nothing, she went ahead and got in the short line - walking out with one big scoop of vanilla in the shape of a bear, complete with a chocolate sauce smiley face and two smaller chocolate scoops on top for the ears. Summer felt so happy.

Her teddy bear ice cream cone seemed to make the hunt so much better too. Dessert in one hand and tracker on the other, Summer took a lick and held the device forward. Within minutes, it blinked - and the screen zoomed into one of their men, identifying him, and locking his position.

"Bucky, I think I've found one of our guys," Summer said over the comm.

"Yeah, I think I'm close to the other one - ah, there he is. I think I see your guy too. They might be heading in the same direction. Where are you?"

"East end of Takeshita Street."

Walking briskly toward Summer's direction, he soon caught sight of that familiar ponytail and yellow dress - and he shook his head, when he saw the icy treat she held in one hand.

"Oh! Hey, Bucky!" she greeted, taking another lick.

"Where'd you get the ice cream?"

"Just over there, like a block or so away. Look! It's a bear! Well, it's supposed to be a bear. I already finished one of the ears - oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't think about you! Did you want an ice cream too?"

Bucky sighed. "No, no. Maybe later. We have to follow our guys."

"Oh yes, right!"

Scanners locked onto both men, Summer and Bucky followed them, past the bustle of the city and into a darker, less-busy corridor. Keeping their distance, they watched the men enter an older-looking high-rise. The tracking devices continued following them through the building, and they appeared to be taking an elevator upward to the topmost floor.

Summer polished off her cone. "We heading in?"

Bucky nodded.

Assuming the front door would be locked, they decided to take a side entrance. To their surprise, the side door happened to be propped open, so Summer and Bucky easily slipped inside.

The two hustled up the stair steps with superhuman speed; their feet hardly made a sound thanks to Bucky's stealth-engineered boots and Wakandan silencing tech built into Summer's feet. It seemed the suspects had remained stationary on the top floor, so all Summer and Bucky needed to do was get there, knock them out - if necessary, of course - and take them into custody.

Arriving at the door, Bucky gave Summer a nod, and she opened it - immediately, the two men turned around, and one of them cocked his gun.

"Bucky!" Summer cried. The gun went off with a bang, and in a split second, Summer shoved Bucky behind her, dashed forward toward the bullet, and tornado-kicked it away. The bullet clanged against her metal leg and inadvertently struck the man in the chest - but only right as he fired his own gun. The gunman's sudden loss of balance sent that bullet in the wrong direction - straight into his partner's head. Both fell to the floor, dead.

Summer gasped, in horror this time.

"That wasn't your fault," Bucky assured her.

"No," Summer replied, "but now our leads are dead! How are we supposed to get answers now?"

"Let's take a look around," Bucky said. "There's gotta be something up here that's important to them."

But upon scanning the room, they realized they were in the most unlikely of places - an open space whose walls were lined with individual panels of black, grooved foam. A disassembled drum set sat in one corner; an upright piano sat on the other - all while microphone stands and cables were tucked neatly away against the wall.

"Is this some kind of...recording studio?" Bucky asked. "What could they possibly have been doing here?"

To Bucky's surprise, Summer had been silent for more than a minute. He noticed her gravitate toward the piano, where she stood quietly for a moment, a contemplative look on her face as her right hand hovered over the keys.

"My mother played piano," she said softly.

She lowered her hand so that the tips of her fingers touched the keys. She played a high D, then the E beside, then down to C, A, B, G. That song.

"Wait a minute!" Summer exclaimed. "I play piano!"

Bucky sighed. "Summer, now is not the ti-"

But of course she didn't hear him. Placing both hands on the keys - for the first time in decades - she played that riff again, quickly: D, E, C, A, B, G.

Then again, an octave lower.

Then again, another octave lower.

Until she hit the final accent with confident gusto.

Bucky recognized the tune. Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer."

But as soon as she played the last chord of the intro, a gear-like sound rumbled from behind the piano - and the piano started moving, sliding to the right to reveal a hidden doorway with another staircase inside.

"What the...?" Bucky said, wide-eyed and mouth gaping open.

Summer was the same. "Jeepers," she remarked with an awestruck whisper. "My mother did say all those piano lessons would be helpful someday."

After exchanging looks, Summer swallowed and Bucky took a deep breath as they gingerly took a step forward into the hidden passage.

At the top of the stairwell, they found an additional floor. This time, the space looked more like a tiny laboratory, with computers and machinery and dozens upon dozens of glass tubes lined up on a tray.

Then, from the shadows, Summer heard a familiar voice she swore she never wanted to hear again.

"Pleasure to see you, Miss Hidaka."