Who Am I? » [Stucky]

105. Partners in Crime

Bucky and Steve sped down the road at an illegal speed, the engine revving up an obnoxious storm, leaving an air clogging trail of smoggy black smoke behind it. As they drove, the blinding flicker of a speed camera flashed at them, catching them in the illicit act. Both of them shielded their surprised eyes as the white light left them light-headed and disorientated. Bucky's vision was filled with silver blind splotches, memory impressions of where the light assaulted his eyes.

They could hear the buzzing drone of cars catching up to them behind, the rattling squadron of armoured vehicles were hot on their heels. Men took to hanging out of the open windows, dangling hazardously as the vehicles swung about the road from side to side and tipped around sharp bends and fired dangerous shots. The gunshots rang out in their ears, half deafening them every time a bullet popped from a barrel. They could hear the quiet slicing noise as the bullets whizzed past at an unnerving proximity. A few ricocheted off the body of Steve's bike with clanks and chinks, before plinking onto the road with a tinkle.

Intermixed with the sound of the booming gunshots and the growling of ferocious petrol-guzzling engines was sirens. Their foreboding howl was approaching, screaming into open the air as they screeched about the streets to find the source of the havoc: there had been mass reports of gunshots and a car chase, flooding in at an unmanageable pace, and they were about to intercept the disturbance.

They swerved, the back wheel swinging out as Bucky clenched the brake on the corner, skidding around the corner and got some distance on the cars as they attempted to pull off the same manoeuver and failed: skidding to a standstill then jerkily turning. The acceleration on Steve's bike lent well to handbrake turns and they were away, leaving some burnt rubber tracks on the road as they roared away.

But soon, the fleet had set off and were approaching again, cars crammed side by side, consuming the road with two abreast in either lane and approaching fast. They were attempting to box them in. Gunshots were still pinging off the metallic bodywork of the bike and skimming past. One bullet just caught the tip of Bucky's ear, scathing the shell and making him sway on the road, disconcerted by the pain at the tip of his ear; where blood was now trickling onto his face in a jagged red line.

As they ripped across a cross-road at top speed, two police cars intercepted from either side and surrounded Steve and Bucky from the left and right. The blues and twos were flickering as they raced side by side. Over the crackling megaphone system they broadcasted: 'Lower your weapons and pull over!'

Still everyone continued to race, the sound of engines tearing up the neighbourhood as they did so. Then a bullet pierced the wing-mirror of a police car, shattering it and bending it with the force of the accurate shot. With that, the passenger in the cop car leant out the window and began firing shots back at the HYDRA vehicles, leaning out the window, the air rushing against his back as his partner carried on.

He put shots into one of the dangerously posed gunmen leaning out a car window and his lifeless body flopped out as the shots penetrated his heart, falling onto the road; his corpse lying in a puddle of red as he twitched and convulsed - the red usurping the colour of the white snow layered thick on the ground. It was then quickly ran over by the four-by-four behind, with a damaging crack of bones and a splatter of red, splashing up the door of the vehicle. Droplets wound down the door as it carried on, and sprayed the vehicle next to it as it carried on.

More gunmen popped their heads out and began open fire on the police cars, but the bullets simply bounced off the bulletproof rear window and missed the policeman who was accurately firing shots at their men. One by one they tumbled from the windows too, their bodies crashing into the road and being left far behind.

Bucky attempted to notch the engine higher to get away and peeked out from between the bonnets of the police cars and made a dangerous turn down a dirt track, cutting out in front of the police car to the right and hearing its tires screech as it stopped to pull in.