Chapter 13

His mind was rampant. Every thought evoked a sense of glitching pain that he couldn't discard. The rooftop made them exposed as deviants, and he knew HYDRA would send more enforcers to recapture him. The location was compromised. He needed to advance closer to the stairway, and use an escape route before the slew of HYDRA agents would lay siege and possibly injure Danny. The value of the boy's life was greater than his own, and he would take every bullet to ensure that his friends were secure from danger.

All emotions brimmed to the surface as the intensity of his steel-blue eyes trained back to the small and distraught boy clutching Steve's limp hand. His senses registered the stench of blood, each whiff growing potent in the dense air, as red splotches leaked over Steve's hard flesh of ridged muscle and dribbled over the cement. The situation was becoming dire. He needed to reach his best friend, become the anchoring echo that would keep Steve conscious until he found a safe house within their range of proximity.

A rush of heat caressed his skin as his chest swelled with heaves of breath."Steve, you gotta hang in there, punk," he whispered, gravely.

Gradually, Steve attempted to slit his eyes open, half-lidded as cores of azure swam in a blur of darkening splotches, he arched his shoulders off the cement, using a firm and lurching effort to grip over Bucky's shoulder, the concussions of pain granted him less focus. He drew up a shaky breath, pulling his lips into a lazy boyish grin. "M' okay, Buck..." he murmured, his pale face caving into a taut grimace. Bucky felt his feverish pulse straining to hold on. A slur passed his parted his as he became committed to Danny's safety. "You gotta get the kid out of here..."

In a tentative and precise effort, Bucky's metallic fingers traced over Danny's frail and discolored knuckles, easing the boy's thrumming pulse with gracing touch. The volumes of his heartbeat were steadying as he harbored onto that familiar brotherly connection for the expense of the moment. He relished the closeness of boy, reminded him of those heydays when he took little Steve under his wing and showed him the ropes of being a Brooklyn kid. His face brightened at call back of memory; it passed through his damaged mind, inserting hope.

The chance to welcome it fully became short-lived as his glacial eyes shifted to the ledge, as he listened for a breach within the crescendos of traffic, his conditioned senses knew that HYDRA had sent out more armed operatives to intercept the roof. The upper part of the hospital was entrenched with columns of black smoke as nursing staff and patients were obstructed with heavy licks of flames reaching the ceilings.

As he displayed genuine restraint, Bucky leveled a cool stare back to the boy hunched over Steve's unconscious form. He parted his full lips as a shaky breath ghosted out, and he cautiously grasped Danny's bony shoulder with his flesh hand.

"Hey kiddo, Cap's gonna pull through, but you gotta trust me now, things are gonna get rough," He paused to compose his tensed emotions, assessing the super soldier's bare wounds with delicate calculation of his steeled grayish-blue eyes as his metallic arm slipped beneath Steve's legs and arced his knees up into a bent position as he hoisted Steve's limp weight over his shoulders. He did a soldier's carry. The mechanical screech of aligning chrome rivets in his cybertronic arm grated against his ears. He remained crouched to his haunches for a second, commanding his muscles to kink as his thighs spread apart to give him steady balance when he straightened into a ramrod stance. "Stay close kid and let's move."

Danny nodded in silence, becoming apparent the delivered command . It was a long road ahead of them.

Feeling a uniformed sense of authority evoke thought, Bucky felt his old existence of Sgt. James Barnes returning to stand in the crosshairs, the presence of HYDRA was gaining closer. A wave of heat coming from the inferno was making his vision distorted into swimming blots, he narrowed a hardened gaze at the gobs of blood tracing his steps. An etch of dread gauged into his chest as he leaned both Steve's and his weight masses forward, balancing on the traction of his boots, ignoring the sirens wailing below as blood rushed in his ears, muting the sound of his uneven pants of breath. He turned his steeled resolve on Danny guiding him closer to the stairwell.

The boy displayed caution in his strides, looking onward to their route of exit. Bucky's grip tightened around Steve's hanging arm, as his rough fingers coiled into sync of a rigid clutch, securing his best friend's weight, no strain obstructed his pulses of momentum. A faint trace of a smile curved on his stiffened lips, as he urged Danny do move ahead of him."That's it, kid, keep movin' and don't look back."

Then, a resonant noise of rotor blades deafened the hazy air, Bucky halted in his paces, and instinctively glanced upwards, training his penetrating blue eyes on the black shape, that distinctively resembled a Kamov Ka-50 (Black Shark). The assault chopper was circulating overhead at inbound speed, casting it's ominous shadow of the busy streets, he knew only one pilot was sitting in the cockpit, he just required a clear shot. Bracing Steve's deadweight, Bucky succeeded to raise his metal arm in a committed effort to engage. He cursed in Russian, knowing that his Glock chamber was almost empty, he couldn't avoid the chance.

"Danny," his voice boomed with a fierce snarl, he glanced over his shoulder with genuine intent shadowed by his roughish tresses and met the boy's desperate eyes. Danny was too young to become a soldier, but he was a part of the war, and surviving was his mission. Bucky felt his deepest sentiment for the boy ache in his heart. He never deserved a glimpse of innocence in his enslaved life, but the little guy never saw him as the defective rarity of HYDRA's will -he was a protector. There was no more devoid of connection, he embraced the feeling of being a big brother again. "Whatever happens to me kid, you gotta keep runnin'..."

"I'm not leaving you, Bucky," the boy downcast a teary glance, his scrawny chest throbbed, as breath drew out a whimper followed with sniffling. He understood Bucky's words, the means of protection, right there he wished that he was bigger-strong enough to gear up for the fight. He didn't want to lose his favorite Avenger and friend, but what could a sickly kid do when the odds were against him? It those infinite seconds his mind flashed with the colors of red and silver, painted around a white star. "Cap's shield," he wheezed, darting his eyes over the roof, and then he recognized the sheen of alloy reflecting a glare of sunlight. It was a beckon of hope.

In a pulse of hellbent determination blazing within his veins, Danny raced towards the ledge, and grabbed the shield with the strength of his tiny hand, he felt a spark from the vibranium charged against his skin as he slid his scrawny arm through the buckled straps, and grounded his feet into firm-unshakeable stance to mitigate against the unbeatable obstacles before him. In another wheeze of breath pushing through his lungs, Danny pressed the shield to his chest, despite the weight of it. A brand of courage was emblazoned over his heart. "I can do this," he believed, his eyes fixed on Bucky, as if he loved the long haired assassin as his big brother. I can do this...

The Soviet helicopter was nearing the roof, lethal percussion of its metallic rotors sliced through the haze of obstructing smoke as the smug pilot locked the firing controls onto Bucky, life and death hung in a balance, but the brutality of Winter Soldier had been awakened to answer the summon of combat. Brandishing his Glock attached to the swell of his hip that he swiped from the Siberian operative, he leveled his right arm shoulder high, feeling the muscles pulse in tension and prepared to pull the trigger back. Strands of hair whipped over his face as he clenched his teeth, feeling his racing heart jamming into his ribs. Once the pilot was a captive in his sight, he sneered, declaring his murderous intent. "Umeret'-"

"Bucky!"

A small blur flashed in front of him in the instant a thunderous wake of clean shots were discharged from the chopper, aiming for his chest, but he never felt the vicious onslaught of pain numb his body, he was stunned as the shield was raised high to his chest against the hails if shelling. The moment was frozen into chaos, he barely gathered thought as winged figure soared underneath the chopper, firing damaging shots at the fuselage. It the Falcon-Sam Wilson. He regained balance and glanced down at Captain America's shield in bewildered shock, watching smears of blood dripping over the flesh remains of a torn arm. "No-no!"

He lost all function to breathe as the shield dropped with a hollow clang in front of him, the engines of the chopper failed, his muted rage was searing in his bones, and without batting an eye, he engaged open fire at the cockpit, succeeding his precision with a headshot to the pilot's skull. The chopper spun out of control, ramming into the ledge of the roof, glass shattered and smoke whirled until it fell to the smoke-confusion street below.

Avoiding the wreckage, Sam descended onto an intact ledge, the expanse of his metal wings closed up as he watched Bucky crash to his knees, Steve rolled off his shoulders and landed gracelessly on his stomach, as the chorus of unhinged and raw screams in Russian erupted from Bucky's throat as he cradled the boy against his chest. Danny had lost his arm.

"Hold on, I'm radioing Agent Hill for evac," Sam's voice buzzed through the static of his unwired mind.

Bucky's eyes were blurred with hot tears, realizing that his young friend was fading in his arms. "No...Kiddo. Please don't give up. I swear to you that we'll make it out..." He dipped his head down, drenched tresses of chestnut obscured over his unshaven jaw as the onslaught of his released anguish trickled over the Danny's mussed hair. He gripped onto the ripped and blood -stained pajamas, trying to hold back the sting of tears edging for release. He was dying inside all over again. Both of his friends were down. It was his fault. He spared a dismal glance at Danny's mingled arm, so much unrepairable damage, in a breathless seethe, he wanted to rip his metal one out of the socket. The innocent and courageous little boy who valued him as a friend—a brother—fell unconscious in his rigid arms as he felt blood landing over his chrome knuckles.

'I'm sorry, little guy...'

He fall back into the void.