Clutching || Bucky Barnes

8

"How are you doing Bruce?" Nat asked down the comms as the transports felt over the grass towards the edge of the city. 

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it". Basil looked over to his left just in time to see the giant iron man suit (something Rhody had sent from Tony's labs) leap over their heads and land several yards ahead of them. "Wow! This is amazing! It's like being the hulk without actually-" Bruce's excited words got cut off as the suit promptly tripped over a rock and went sprawling. The transporters just soaring around him as he picked himself out of the dirt. "I'm okay". 

"I'm picking up two heat signatures breaking through the tree line", Rhodes announced from where he was flying ahead of them. As the transports reached a point about a hundred feet away from the barrier's edge, they turned and everyone disembarked. The soldiers of Wakanda all falling into formation as war chants rose up from their ranks. 

Basil fell into line with Bucky as Steve, Nat and T'challa all walked together to meet the two beings on the opposite side of the barrier. One was seemingly female, with skin a pale purple and horns curving round her eye sockets like eyebrows. The second one was a giant, easily as big as the hulk and roughened like unfinished clay with skin of brown scales. Both wore grey armour and stood with an arrogance that made Basil want to stab them. As he watched, the female alien lifted an arm and the asteroids, which turned out to be black pointed ships, began to creak open. The side facing them sliding upwards before their eyes. 

"They surrender?" Bucky asked as Steve returned to stand next to them. Nat cocking her gun as she came to stand on Basil's other side. 

"Not exactly". 

"Good", Basil pulled out his hunting knives. "I am feeling very stabby". Around him, T'Challa had started a war chant. 

Then creatures were pouring from the trees. They were grey things with six legs and tusks. Basil whistled at their frankly, horrifying sight. "And I thought the Chitari six years ago was bad. These guys are just disgusting". 

"What the hell?" Bucky muttered in disgust. Basil felt a bit of sympathy for his lover. It was the man's first alien invasion after all. You had to give him some credit. 

"I think we pissed her off", Nat murmured. 

"Is it a her?" Basil wondered aloud as the creatures below began to pile into the force field. Several of them were promptly electrocuted and killed on the spot but the hundreds more pouring from the trees simply climbed over the bodies and continued to claw at the barrier. 

"If you want, you can go up and ask the evil alien her pronouns baby boy. But I am personally not going to be polite to someone who wants to kill us". 

"Fair point", Basil conceded. Some of the creatures were clawing their way through. The first few died but more kept coming. Soon, the ones making it through were still alive and racing towards them. T'Challa shouted an order and the army erected shields made of the same blue forcefields and levels their guns. Basil sheathed one of his knives and pulled out his pistol as Bucky raised his rifle. The creatures all fell. Sam and Rhody soaring overhead and blasting them. The orange light of explosions reflecting off the dome. 

"They're circling around the dome. If they get in behind us then there will be nothing between them and Vision", Sam's voice came through over the comm. 

"Then we have to keep them in front of us", Steve stated. 

"On my signal", T'Challa pressed a button on his wrist and spoke into it. "Open north west section seventeen".  

"This will be the end of Wakanda", a man, Leader of one of the tribes who had joined their fight but who Basil did not know the name of, muttered.

"Then it will be the noblest end in history", Okoye replied with honour. 

"Don't you die on me Sarge", Basil grinned at Bucky as he holstered his pistol and pulled out his knife again, spinning it in his hands. "I only just got you back and you owe me a date. Several dates". 

"Wouldn't dream of it", Bucky shot back. "Someone has to keep you under control Parrish. Steve deserves a break. It's my turn now". They grinned at each other. 

T'Challa call out and the shields dropped. He walked forwards, a true king, to stand at the very front of his army. "Wakanda forever!" 

The cry went up as the mask of the black panther formed over his face. Basil yelled with the rest of them as everyone broke into a run. The army of Wakanda charging together towards the barrier and the creatures awaiting them as the barrier opened. Steve and Basil keeping pace with the king as the three of them drew ahead of the army. They were the first the throw themselves into combat. Basil letting out a whoop of adrenaline filled he simply phased through the first dozen aliens. Then he was skidding through the mud and turning tangible just in time to rip his knives through the gut of a beast then twist and throw his second knife into a creature's head. The bodies slumped and he held out his hand, the magnetic mechanism calling the knife backing into his hold just in time for him to turn intangible again as a creature leapt at him. 

What was an attack had turned into chaos within seconds. There was simply too many creatures and their smaller force was being overwhelmed. Basil saw Bucky be knocked down to his right, gun sent skittering away as the creature snarled. As he watched, Bucky pulled out a knife and plunged into the thing's brain. Once, twice with a yell before pushing the dead thing off of him and grabbing for his rifle again. "There's too many of them", Bruce's voice yelled down coms. The iron hulk suit pinned down by seven beasts. Basil threw his knives and they both hit their marks, the creatures trying to bite T'Challa dropping dead. 

The king got up and barely had time to thank Basil with a nod before another creature was lunging at him. Basil swore as he recalled the knives to his hands. He raised them as two beasts leapt at him from either side. They passed straight through him and rolled in the dirt. As they regained their feet, he stabbed down and sliced open their stomachs. Purple blood and foul smelling organs spilling into the dirt. "Yuck". 

That was then a beam of rainbow light came shooting down from the sky and crashed into the centre of the battle. Basil watched as a massive, blue glowing axe came spinning out of the light and soared in a circle around the battle. It cut through the creatures like they were nothing but grass, knocking the ones off Bruce and Steve before looping around and returning to the rainbow like a boomerang. A familiar boomerang. Basil fist pumped the air as the light faded and Thor was standing in the carnage in all his glory. He had gotten a haircut since Basil had last seen him, and one eye seemed to be a different colour, but it was still recognisably him. (The racoon standing on it's hind legs and wearing a very human expression of glee while holding a very large gun, and the humanoid tree person accompanying Thor were a bit weirder. But Thor was technically and alien from space as well, so Basil wasn't gonna judge the god's friends. Besides, the raccoon looked like he was very excited to do some damage to the monsters surrounding them, and Basil was not going to argue with that). 

Bruce's bark of laughter was audible all across the battlefield. "You are so screwed now!" 

Thor did look extremely angry. "Bring me Thanos!" He broke into a run towards the Alien woman and her companion, visible lighting cracking around him as he leapt up high into the sky. Thunder boomed and when he hit the ground, the resulting explosion took out dozens of creatures. Basil laughed and ran after the god with his knives ready. 

unedited