Bird Set Free | Natasha Romanoff ✓

Chapter Fifteen

Aquila watched as Steve threw Jasper Sitwell across the roof, her lips pulled down into a menacing sneer.

"Tell me about Zola's algorithm," Steve demanded as Sitwell scrambled back up to his feet.

"Never heard of it."

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Aquila asked, her eyes narrowed.

"I was throwing up, I get seasick."

"Sure." Aquila scoffed as Steve forced Sitwell towards the edge of the rooftop.

Sitwell's face showed pure terror as he stumbled slightly however, he managed to force a small smile on his face. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers."

"You're right," Steve responded as Aquila smoothly stepped out of the way. "It's not. It's her's."

Natasha's leg rose up, kicking the man in the chest, sending him off the roof. "Oh, wait. What about that girl from accounting, Laura?" Natasha said with a smirk as Sitwell's screams grew fainter.

"Lillian. Lip piercing right?" Steve responded.

"Yeah, she's cute." Aquila butted in.

"Hey."

"Yeah, I'm not ready for that, especially not with her anyway," Steve responded as Aquila cocked her head slightly in confusion, Steve was lying, she just didn't quite know why. 

Sitwell's screams reached a full crescendo as Sam soared up, keeping a tight hold on the back of Sitwell's shirt before throwing him back to the ground.

Aquila stalked forward Natasha and Steve right behind her. She watched as Sitwell held his hands up in surrender, terrified for his life.

"Zola's algorithm is a program. . . .for choosing Insight's targets!"

"What targets?" Steve demanded.

"You!" Sitwell cried. "Those two! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Bruce Banner! Stephen Strange! Anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now or in the future.

"The future?" Steve asked. "How could it know?"

Sitwell let out a loud chuckle. "How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it."

Aquila turned to Natasha only to see the same confused expression reflection on her face.

"Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their futures."

"And what then?" Steve asked.

"Oh my god," Sitwell muttered to himself. "Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!" Steve demanded, his face shaking with anger.

"Then the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."

Oh shit.

Aquila slid behind a discarded car, the gravel biting at her legs. Bullets flew past her at a rapid speed. Everything had gone to shit in a matter of minutes.

Bullets were flying from Aquila's own gun, but she was no much against the people coming her way. Natasha had appeared at her side not too long ago and the two of them darted from car to car, ducking and weaving.

However, their amateur game of hide and shoot was forced to come to a stop as a missile was shot at them, sending them off the road. Fortunately, Natasha managed to use her grappling hook to get the two of them to safety.

Aquila wanted to transform but she knew it would be easier to blend in if she stayed as Aquila instead of Talons.

The Winter Soldier was quick in pursuit and it didn't take him long to find where the two women were.

Aquila lunged at the Winter Soldier trying to catch him off guard but it didn't take him long for him to pin her down, his metal hand slowly wrapping around her throat.

The air was slowly being pressed out of Aquila's lungs before Natasha flung forward, knocking the Winter Soldier off Aquila.

Aquila scrambled away, noticing Steve quickly running onto the scene. A gunshot rang through the air as Steve captured the Winter Soldier into another battle.

It didn't take Aquila long to find the source of the noise. Whipping around she found Natasha pressing her hand tightly to the gunshot wound in her shoulder.

"Here," Aquila said gently, taking Natasha's hand away and placing her own there. "It going to be ok."

Aquila and Natasha watched Steve fought with the Winter Soldier, his mask eventually being knocked off, revealing his face.

Aquila recognized him as Steve's old best friend who was thought to have been dead.

"Well, that can't be good." She muttered underneath her breath, she knew Steve pretty well by now, if Barnes tried to shoot at him, Steve wouldn't hesitate to not stop him.

Aquila grabbed the missile launcher and quickly took a shot but as the smoke drifted away, revealing that the Winter Soldier was gone.

She turned back to Natasha, her hand still pressed against the wound. 

Aquila's ears quickly picked up the sound of sirens slowly approaching them. She cursed slightly under her breath as she realized that they had been caught, there was no way out now. 

S. H. I. E. L. D. agents rushed out of the cars that pulled up, forcing all four of them to their knees and forced into a nearby van. 

Aquila tried to move her wrists despite the thick cuffs that had been securely fitted, in an attempt to escape even though she already knew there was no chance. S. H. I. E. L. D. wouldn't let the most wanted people in Washington D.C slip through their fingers again.

"It was him," Steve said, sadly to the three people sitting around him. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago."

Steve breathed in sharply in his moment of realization. "Zola. 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. . ." Steve eventually trailed off. 

"None of that was your fault, Steve," Natasha told Steve from where she sat next to Aquila. 

Steve looked to Aquila, who shared a brief and small but sad smile with him.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Aquila was painfully aware of Natasha's pale face and still heavily bleeding shoulder but there was nothing she could do about it, thanks to the giant cuffs. 

"Hey, we need to put pressure back on that wound or she's going to bleed out," Aquila said turning to the two guards that sat in the back of the truck with them.

The guard on the left pulled out what looked to be an electric baton, pointing it threateningly at Aquila before using it against the other guard until he was knocked out.

All four of them in the back of the truck looked to the person as they took their helmet off, revealing none other than Agent Hill. 

Aquila breathed out a small sigh of relief. 

"Ah, that thing was squeezing my brain." Agent Hill said before turning to Steve. "Who's this guy?"

"Sam," Steve replied before Aquila spoke up. 

"You here to rescue us from this lovely situation we have found ourselves in?"

"You bet."