Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Five

     "Steve, this is insane! We're gonna get ourselves killed!" I said gripping onto the chair tighter.

     "If I stop, we will for sure be killed," Steve said, changing lanes again. There was a chorus of honks as he cut off traffic behind us.

     "Can't we just go back to the Tower?" I asked shakily.

     "Not an option," Steve said, swerving into another lane. There was a loud snap and before either of us could react, there was a spidering crack in the windshield. I gasped and covered my mouth, Steve ducked and seemed to have been shocked back to reality. He swerved right, onto the nearest off ramp. We sped off and onto a relatively deserted street. Another shot exploded off and shattered the front window. Steve and I both covered out faces against the raining glass.

     "Are they shooting at us?" I asked looking back up.

     "Ma'am, I think that's clear," he said, turning down a quiet street. I whipped around in my chair to look back out the missing window. Three blacked out vans turned onto the street after us, "Grab my shield and bring it up here," Steve commanded as he looked around. I leaned into the back and grabbed onto the cold shield and heaved it up to the front with me. It landed on my lap and I looked over.

     "What now?" I asked pushing hair from my face. The wind whipped around the car, making it harder to hear.

     "Hold on tight," he said as he cranked the wheel all the way to the left. The tires squealed as the car made a complete 180 and sped toward the on coming cars.

     "Steve!" I screamed and gripped the shield tighter. Steve leveled his eyes with the car as he reached over to unlock his seatbelt.

     "Come here," he said quickly as he leaned over toward me. In one smooth motion, he unlocked my seatbelt and took the shield from me. He wrapped his arms around me with the shield pressed against  my back, "hold on," he said again. With a kick off from the door behind him, Steve launched us out of the car. I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes. Somehow, Steve managed to spin us around and be behind me. The car door behind Steve slammed into a wall, followed by Steve and me. It didn't hurt as bad as I had expected because Steve took most of the impact. He groaned as he slid to the ground and tried to catch his breath. His shield clattered to the ground next to us. There was a deafening crash as Stark's car collided with the cars following us. There was only a moment where there was no sound which was immediately destroyed by more gun shots. I scampered over to Steve and wrenched his shield up in front of us. Bullets ricocheted off the shield.

     "Steve! Steve, wake up!" I shook anxiously him with my free hand. He moaned and looked over at me blearily.

     "Doctor?" he asked confused. He heard the gun shots and quickly took the shield from me and stepped in front of me.

     "What do we do now?" I asked from behind Steve. He didn't have time to answer when the rush of an engine neared us. Steve piped up and looked over his shield. A relieved smile crossed his face.

     "Bucky!" he sighed. I looked over his shoulder. A man was stepping off a motorcycle and looking at the men shooting at us. The men seemed oblivious to his arrival as they continued there assault on Steve's shield. This man looked more threatening than our attackers. His long, wavy brown hair fell into his eyes as he glared at the attackers. He was dressed in all black, but one arm looked like it was all covered in metal; he looked like some kind of assassin.

     "Who's that?" I asked. Steve glanced back at me with a shocking smile on his face.

     "Our back up," he said. We both looked back up as the man knelt down and took aim. His gun was quiet as he shot the men. Only once the assailants had started getting shot, did they notice the man. They all turned to face him. Steve jumped up and pulled me after him as he ran toward the mouth of an alley.

     "Stay out of sight," he said quickly before turning to run toward the man in all black. I stood in the dark alley as Steve and the man fought with the gun men. They worked in such a perfectly synchronized team, it was as if they'd known each other their entire life. Steve would kneel down in front of the man as the man would take aim. They were like a well oiled machine. Their attackers didn't have a chance. I watched as the attackers started retreating away from the duo. They scattered back behind their engulfed cars. In he lapse in gun fire, Steve turned to his companion to talk. Before I could realize what was happening, I was hoisted into the air and thrown over somebody's shoulder.

     "Oi! Let me go!" I kicked my legs repeatedly. There was a deep laugh from the person holding me. I flicked my head up and caught the eye of Steve. He jumped up and tore after me, "Put me down now!" I warned. The kidnapper said nothing in response. I took my non-injured arm and rammed my thump as hard as I could into his lower spine. The man stumbled to his knees and let his grip on my lift for a moment. I pushed myself back out of his hold and tumbled to the ground. The attackers started to get up when Steve reached us. He held out his hand to help me up. We made our way quickly toward his partner when I felt a hand grab my other wrist, pulling me to a stop. Steve turned but before he react, I pulled my hand from his and brought my fist down across the man's face. The man crumpled to the ground, his grip on my wrist now gone. I turned back to look at Steve. His eyes were wide as he gave me a skeptical look.

     "What," I shrugged, "I'm not entirely useless," I said. He let out a small laugh and pulled me back to his partner.

     "Buck, this is Dr. Scaffer," Steve said looking over his shoulder at the attackers who still had't reemerged. The man, Buck, shot off another round toward the cars before looking over at me. Up close, he was very handsome but his eyes shared the same haunted look I'd seen in Steve's earlier. He shot me a charming smile.

     "James Buchanan Barnes ma'am. Sorry for such a hasty meeting," he said, raising my hand to his mouth. I felt a flush rush across my cheeks. His voice was velvety soft with a beautiful Brooklyn accent I hadn't heard in a long time.

     "Buck, we really gotta go. If I don't get her out of here soon, Fury may actually put me back into the ice," Steve said. James smiled and tipped his head lightly at me.

     "Till we meet again m'lady," he said before disappearing off toward the attackers. Steve pulled me over to the motorcycle James had arrived on and swung his legs over it. He attached his shield to the front and looked back at me.

     "Come on Doctor, we've gotta get you outta here," Steve said as gun fire stated up again. I hesitantly slid behind Steve. He kick started the motorcycle and sped off away from the gun fire. We reached the Tower in record time. Steve stepped off the motorcycle in a different garage then we entered this morning. This one was filled up with motorcycles, Jeeps, and military all-terrain vehicles. Steve ran his hand down his face as he looked around.

     "Stark's gonna kill me."