Clutching || Bucky Barnes

9

Thor's arrival had boosted moral but the battle was still chaos. There was no tactics anymore, just trying not to die. Which suited Basil fine as he had spent the majority of his life just trying not to die. The aliens were proving to be challenging foes. The creatures, monsters with two legs; four arms and massive teeth, were tough to kill. They died snarling and still clawing to rip flesh as Basil pulled his knives out of their skulls. The two bodies fell limp and he stood up with a sigh. He was covered in sweat and purple blood. The gunk splattering his skin and matting his curls. It smelt horrible and he grimaced at the stickiness on his blades. A snarl behind him and he threw his knife without turning around. The creature let out a whimper as instead of lunging, it's body skidded across the dirt and fell still at Basil's feet. He pulled out his knife and glanced around. 

Bucky was north of him. The man had his gun in one hand and was holding the walking, talking racoon in another. Basil watched in confused amazement as the man spun round. The racoon grinning (he had never seen a racoon grin before) as he shot down half a dozen monsters. Basil blinked and turned to glance in the opposite direction only to see the humanoid tree impale five creatures on it's extendable arm and lift them up in the air with a roar, thumping them into the earth before throwing them through the air. Basil blinked then breathed out a tired sigh. He could deal with whatever those two were later, when he wasn't in danger of dying. 

He was just wiping some of the blood from his knives and taking a second to regain his breath when the ground lurched. Cries rung out as the earth near the dome erupted and five giant metal wheels burst into the light. They were the size of buildings, sharp and ripping up grooves in the earth as they rolled towards them. (Basil thought that they reminded him of little spinning toys that he had seen children use, only bigger and much more deadly). "Get Down!" Someone shouted. "Retreat!" Came another cry.

 Basil began running. From the corner of his eye, he spotted T'Challa fleeing a few dozen feet away. The wheels hot on their tail. Making a split second decision, he changed direction and threw himself at the king just as the Wheels reached them. He grabbed the man's arm as they both hit the dirt. The contraptions passing through them as they turned intangible. "Are you alright?" Basil asked as they both got to their feet. 

"I am alright", T'Challa panted through his mask. "Thank you Basil". 

"Anytime", Basil huffed. He was getting too old for this. He turned to watch the wheels only to see them rise into the air on a red haze before smashing into the ground with enough force to break them into pieces. A sigh escaped him at the familiar sight of Wanda's magic. So she had joined the fight. He rolled his shoulders and sliced through an alien coming at him from his right. Purple blood sprayed and he flinched. "Yuck". 

"Basil!" Henry's voice came through on the comm, panicked and breathless. "There's an alien trying to get to Vision! I can't hold him off!" 

"Henry?" Basil pressed a finger to his comm, sudden worry churning in his gut. Through the earpiece he could hear thuds and groans. "Henry! What's going on?" A sharp inhale of pain. 

"Baz. Vision and the alien have just gone out of the window. I've been stabbed. It's bad, probably not moving for a while". 

"We have a vision situation here", Sam's voice came through on the other comm line. 

"Henry, keep pressure on it and use the pills I gave you. Break it open and spread the goo over the wound. That should hold it until someone can get to you. What about Shuri?" 

"She's unconscious", Henry answered with a hiss of pain. 

"Get down!" T'challa warned. Basil turned just in time to see the mace come swinging at him. It passed right through him, carving a dent in the earth near his feet. The large scaled alien, one of the leaders, grunted in annoyance as he pulled on the long chain. Basil gritted his teeth, anger filing him. He was running before the alien could ready the mace for another swing. The chain passed through him, followed by a fist as he leapt up and landed on the thing's chest. The massive alien reaching up to grab him, fingers curling around Basil's ribs just as he sunk both of his knives into the helmeted skull. Vibranium cutting through the metal, bone and flesh. Blood trickled from the wound and Basil watched as the slit eyes rolled back and the whole body toppled backwards. They hit the mud with a bang. The hand clutching his chest falling away as he stood up. Figure small and blood splattered where it stood on a creature three times his size. 

"I've got Vision!" Bruce's voice came down the comm. "But we need backup now!" 

"Got it", Steve responded.

"On my way!" Basil panted back before he took off running in the direction of the trees. On the way he passed several soldiers, people of Wakanda who were wounded and down. He skidded and took a few seconds to pass out pills. The ones who were still able to move their arms catching the pills and spreading the goo over themselves. Two needed help and he took a second to spread the goo over their wounds himself, before continuing. Those precious seconds meant that Steve reached Vision first. 

When Basil reached the scene, a grey skinned alien in dark robes was standing over the blonde and Vision was slumped against a tree with a wound in his chest. He watched as the alien raised his staff, ready to impale it through Steve's chest. That was when he threw the knife. It went waling through the air and the alien let out a grunt of surprise as it impaled itself into the back of  of it's head. Basil held out a hand and the knife shot through the air back to him as he ran towards vision. "Hi Vis", he greeted as he fell to his knees at the cyborg's side. "You really need to stop getting impaled", he muttered as he pulled out a pill and spread the goo over the wound. Vision grunted in pain. 

"I shall endeavour to remember that". 

Basil was just pressing a bandage covered in metal wires and full of nanotechnology over the wound when Wanda landed a short distance away. He moved back to make space for her as she fell to her knees at Vision's side. "How is he?" She asked. 

"This should hold him until we can get him back to the lab", Basil sighed, rubbing his brow on his sleeve. 

Vision gasped, eyes widening as he slumped in Wanda's hold. "What is it?" She clutched him tighter. 

"He's here". Vision didn't need to clarify who 'he' was. Basil and Wanda exchanged grim looks. Thanos was here and they were unprepared. 

unedited 

next one is going to be sad guys.