so bad guys can't see me bleed

•tape eleven•

"I am never gonna live this down," I mumble, putting my head back in the back of the government car as I think of how much Dad is going to make fun of me for getting arrested like that.

"It was him," Cap says after a moment. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How is that even possible?" Sam asks. "It was, like, 70 years ago."

"Well, it's been about 70 years and Cap is still alive," I say to him. "Would it really be that surprising if he was still alive?"

"Zola," Cap says. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Nat says to him.

Cap shakes his head. "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Sam looks over at Nat's bleeding shoulder, then to my bleeding leg. "We need to get a doctor here," he says, turning to the two other people in the back with us. "If we don't put pressure on their wounds, they're going to bleed out here in the truck."

"Aren't you supposed to heal fast?" Cap asks me.

"Just because I'm half invincible does not mean that I heal as fast as my dad. Depends on the circumstances and my energy levels."

One of the people lifts up a baton and turns it on, showing the zapping power that it has. I blink boredly at the person right before they power up the baton and hit the person next to them with it. They punch them in the face, and they fall between my feet and Sam's.

"Ah, that thing was squeezing my brain," the woman says, taking off the helmet. She nods between Sam and me. "Who are they?"

—

Sam climbs out of the van, then puts his arm out for me. I wrap my arm around his shoulder as he helps me get out of the vehicle. I mumble a thank you before walking after Nat and Cap.

The woman, who Cap told us is Hill, leads us inside a building and shouts, "GSW. She's lost at least a pint. We got another one. She's lost at least half a pint."

"Maybe double," Sam says.

"Let me take them!" the guy running towards us says loudly.

"They'll want to see him first," Hill says.

—

"What the fuck."

Fury movies his head to look at us. "About damn time," he says. "Ah, I see that the anti-hero is still here."

—

"Lacerated spinal column," Fury explains while the doctor finishes patching Nat up, "Cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." The doctor moves over to me and starts working on my thigh. I had to change my clothes when we first got here.

I told them I was fine, but no, they still have to patch me up.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor says.

"That's comforting," I say sarcastically.

"Yeah, let's not forget that," Fury says. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Nat says. "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury says. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Cap asks. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the director's life had to look successful," Hill says.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury says. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust. Oh, and by the way, Redshot, you are now an official member of the Avengers."

"Oh my God, I got accepted by the studio?" I put my hands to my cheeks after I gasp. "I am honored."

"Don't make me regret that."

—

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize," Fury says, dropping a picture of Pierce on the table. "He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility. See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," Nat says.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Fury says to her, opening a laptop.

"What's that?" Sam asks.

"Once the helicarries reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," Hill says, turning a computer to the rest of us.

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury explains.

"One or two won't cut it," Hill says. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work because, if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA," Fury says. "We have to get past them, insert theses server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left—"

"We're not salvaging anything," Cap interrupts. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with this," Fury says.

"You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been compromised. You said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury asks. "I noticed."

"How many paid the price before you did?"

Fury glances around before looking back at Cap. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Cap asks. "Or would you have compartmentalized that too? S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, it all goes."

"He's right," Hill says.

Fury looks at all of us, hoping for someone to defend him. He looks over at Sam, who says, "Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."

Fury sighs and leans back in his chair, looking over at Cap. "Well," he says, "it looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

—

"Cher, how good are you at sneaking in and out of places?" Cap asks me, walking into the room that Nat and I are in.

"Are you kidding me?" I ask him. "My dad taught me how to sneak around when I learned out to walk."

"Good, now suit up," he says. "We're going to get my old suit."