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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 15, 2015 0:25:05 GMT -6
"Alignment at 65%. Recommend recalibration."* A smooth female electronic voice filled the air.
"I heard you the last five million times you told me, you stupid machine!" Henri growled back in French. She stumbled her way down a darkened alley, her hand on the brick wall the only thing keeping her vertical. The other hand clutched at her side, just above her hip. With a grunt of pain, she leaned against the wall for a moment to take stock of her situation. She was in trouble, that much she could tell.
With a hiss she took her hand away from her side. She was never this sloppy. Well she had been once...
"Recommend Recalibration."
"I HEARD YOU!" she yelled then winced. She knew she had to recalibrate. she could barely feel her legs. The spinal implants were beginning to get knocked out of alignment. But that's what happens when you disappear and reappear, broken down molecule by molecule, and there's something not in the original blueprint trying to travel along. Sometimes Henri didn't want damn the implants, she didn't want to have to count her jumps, she just wanted to have her freedom back. But she knew that wasn't going to happen. A shrapnel grenade had made sure of that.
"I heard you... " she said again, quieter, looking around, hoping her outburst hadn't given away her hiding spot. Just to be sure, she slid down the wall and sat for a moment.
Gun shot, no exit wound. It wasn't bleeding too bad but she couldn't go any farther without help. Help. She hated asking for help. No. She wouldn't. F*ck that. She could make it.
This was the very last time she'd ever think the money was too good for her to say no to a job. She always said no to corporate espionage as a rule, but this one time, the offer was just too good. She'd gotten what she's been paid to get. But it appeared she hadn't been the only one who had accepted the offer.
And now here she was, in an alley, bleeding from a bullet in her side wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this one. Reluctantly, she pulled out her phone, her fingers shaking so bad she had to go back several times to erase numbers as she dialed. It rang twice, and she wasn't even sure if she still had the right number. But she tried anyway. "Alexei. J'ai besoin d'aide."
*translated from French
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 15, 2015 0:51:53 GMT -6
There was a flash of light and screaming. James could hear someone screaming his name and then he was awake, covered in a sheen of perspiration and holding his .45 in his hand. He had grabbed it off the night stand out of reflex. A moment or two to clear his head and then he grabbed the ringing phone. He answered without hesitation, since very few had the number for this one anyway. A voice on the other line. A voice from the past asking for help in French. James could hear the pain in her voice and he knew it wasn't from just using the number.
"Bien sûr. Donnez-moi quinze minutes." He lapsed into French without a second thought. James disconnected the call and stood up. He moved to the bookshelf and hit the hidden release, causing it to swing into his apartment's armory. He looked at the display cases and thought for a moment. Captain America couldn't be seen aiding Henri. Winter Soldier could. James stared at his Mark IV costume, behind glass. He hadn't worn the costume since the incident. There was no choice. It wasn't like he had spare costumed identities lying around. "Computer, trace last incoming call from personal cell. Release Winter Soldier uniform, model 4. Security code, Winter Widow."
The bulletproof glass slid aside as James took the costume and began suiting up in his old costume. The security code was meant to keep anyone from stealing the costumes, but also, James had written a nifty program that allowed the armory to select and set out an armament based on the costume. Cap got mostly non-lethal things, while Winter Soldier got a variety of toys lethal and non-lethal to play with.
He looked at the screen and saw that the computer had pinpointed her to Dubai. James shook his head. He had no idea why Henri was in Dubai, but it wouldn't be good. "Run backdoor program. Upload coordinates to SHIELD teleport system. One to Dubai on my mark. Covert mode." The program allowed him to use the teleport system off the books and even better, the cover mode program would erase the logs when he was done, so no one could ask questions. "Mark." And Winter Soldier was across the world in a flash of light.
A quick lapse into Alexei's Russian accent. "You know, we have to stop meeting like this."
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 15, 2015 1:46:06 GMT -6
Henri hung up the phone and tried not to feel like a failure. Fifteen minutes he said. She wondered if she could wait that long. She hated waiting. And she hated asking for help. And here she was, having to do both. This was just a banner day for her. At least this far out from the city center it was darker. They didn't have street lights on every corner way out here, because that would cost money that they didn't want to spend. So she waited, in the dark, hoping there would only be one person she'd see in the near future.
"Merde..." The flash of light was blinding. Henri held up her hand, rather ineffectively to block it, and for a moment she though it was a flashbang just before they took her out, trying to disorient her enough so she couldn't port away. But then she heard a familiar voice and relief flooded through her.
"I zee reports of your demise are greatly exaggerated...'onestly didn't think der would be anyone on zhe other end of that phone." She looked him over as her eyes adjusted to the darkness once again, and he did indeed look pretty good for a dead guy. Of course, she always thought that there was no way he would be taken out that easily. He was a stubborn b*stard.
"Now, if we could go before zhey find us after your leetle light show that would be much appreciated." Of course as the words came out of her mouth, gunfire erupted at the end of the alley. She was just have the worst luck ever today. She was starting to wonder what deity she'd pissed off recently to get such a streak of bad luck. She reached out for Alexei and put her hand on his leg, porting them up to the roof of the building and giving them the high ground.
"Alignment at 60%. Structural integrity failing."
"Vous stupide morceau de la machine de merde! Arrêter de me dire des choses que je connais déjà !" She could barely feel her toes and her legs were starting to tingle. She couldn't do that again without consequences. She would barely be able to stand next time. And She really didn't need Alexei to know about that particular quirk right now. She hoped he'd chalk it up to the bullet in her side if he had to help her up.
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 15, 2015 2:14:37 GMT -6
There was a quick pause while James assessed the situation. His mask took a quick scan of Henri and gauged her injuries. She wasn't looking good. "No, the reports weren't exaggerated." It was a simple, matter of fact reply. As the gunfire rang out, James spun on his heel, returning fire with his pistol, until he felt Henri's hand on his leg. And then the world changed and he was on a rooftop. A slight wave of disorientation and nausea hit him. James had forgotten about her power to teleport and more importantly that his body didn't like it.
"I forgot how much your powers didn't agree with my stomach. I am glad I didn't eat anything before I came." He reached into his belt and pulled out a few items. Winter Soldier moved over to her side, trying to do what he could for a quick dressing so they could move. He gave Henri a look through the lenses of the mask that said she was welcome to object to this, but he'd ignore her protests. It was a look that would no doubt be very familiar.
"No exit wound. We will have to dress it as best we can. We need to get moving as soon as possible. They will be looking for us in the area. This will hurt." He slipped a pressure bandage over the wound after packing it with something that looked like a tampon. That would slow the blood flow long enough for James to figure out a plan. His mask gave him a quick list with two safe houses his mother kept in the city. They weren't too far from here.
"I have a place we can hide here in the city. We will need to go as best we can. It's close by."
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 15, 2015 12:23:32 GMT -6
Small miracles was what she was working with today. Small, tiny miracles. One was that she was still alive, the others coming in the form of an old friend. Who had given her a perfectly reasonable excuse to not use her powers anymore. That was all Henri needed right then. Because that's all she that's all she thought she was going to get. So she didn't ask for more.
She saw the look on his face, and knew there were no more tiny miracles. That look was usually accompanied by pain. And this time was no different. She sharply inhaled through her nose when he shoved the wad of cotton in her side and grabbed his shoulder. Letting the breath out in a sharp hiss from behind clenched teeth as he applied the pressure bandage, she did all she could not to scream. Pain was good though, meant she still had a chance.
"You weren't kidding about it hurting," she groaned, attempting to stand. That was, of course, a horrible idea. She'd lost more blood than she thought, and even using him as a crutch, Henri listed dangerously. Her whole world spun and the edges of her vision started to go black. She took a few moments, her whole body feeling like lead, to steady herself.
"Ok, I cannot promise to move quickly, but I will move with purpose. Let's go before zhey figure out we're up here." she leaned heavily on him, testing out her legs gingerly, hoping she could use them even a little. Well, she could stand at least.
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 15, 2015 12:49:24 GMT -6
After a few moments of working, he'd patched her up as best he could. James was slightly impressed by the lack of screaming. Henri was a trooper. He'd forgotten about that. "I was speaking from experience in that category. I know what it feels like. Usually, have to do this by myself." When, she stood up, James felt her lean against him. She'd lost a decent amount of blood. It was going to to slow them down.
"Take it easy. We'll start slow." He took a few seconds to consider his options and then looked down at his wrist comm. He tapped a few buttons on the screen and made a couple quick adjustments, before speaking into it and then pressing a button. A small broadcast went out over local airwaves. If they were monitoring the airwaves, then they'd wander off in another direction entirely. "Not to worry. I just called in a report of two people who look vaguely like us, appearing in a flash of light on the other side of the city. They already know you can teleport from that display down there. I just made it sound like we popped up elsewhere."
Henri's slow moving was going to be an issue. James made a few calculations in his head. He could reconfigure the suit's stealth field to cover two people, but it was going to drain the power cells faster. He was fairly sure he had a way to charge the cells at his safe house. He'd have to risk it. The mask display showed the configuration of the field and James expanded it to cover two people. "Alright. My suit has limited cloaking. I'm going to adjust it to cover both of us. It will help us move at a slower pace without getting caught. You'll have to stay close. Any larger and the power cells will drain faster than would be useful." The air shimmered around them as the field came up. "Trust me. I'm a professional."
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 15, 2015 15:20:10 GMT -6
"A med kit is something I have contemplated adding, but it's heavy and that much more to teleport." Henri allowed herself a small grin at his use of misinformation. All those gadgets seem to come in pretty handy. She'd have to look into adding a few things to her equipment if this was going to be a continuous problem. She couldn't rely on her powers like she used to and she was still getting used to that fact. It was a right pain in the ass.
"You always did love a wild horse chase." she shuffled closer to him, trying not to be too much of a burden. She knew she was going to slow them down and she had asked for his help. She just hoped she didn't get them both dead with her problem. He already had the privilege of that particular life event. She didn't feel like asking him about that just yet. Being dead was something she was trying to avoid.
"Any excuse to keep me pressed up against you, eh Alexei?" She chuckled and then coughed. Hopefully his safe house was as close as he said it was. She didn't need him to carry her if anything else went wrong.
She watched the cloak cover them both and again considered a trip to a military base somewhere to relieve them of some "unnecessary" technology. Of course Gerorges' voice rang out in her head, rather disappointed. Do not rely on technology or people too heavily, Henri. Both will call you when you need them the most. It was something she'd found to be true over her life, though living that way had made it a lonely one. It had also made it a longer one.
"Ah, yes, a professional... What is word... wise ass. That's it." she shook her head, grinning. She set them off at a faster pace then she thought herself capable of, keeping a tight grip on his shoulders to stay in close. It was a pace she wouldn't be able to keep up for long, but every second counted.
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 17, 2015 1:06:21 GMT -6
James shakes his head. "How about some body armor or avoiding getting shot altogether?" This was a game they played. Neither of them really knew how much of the truth they were telling each other. It was an old spy game. Probably also, how they flirted. There was a momentary update on his comm and he grinned at her. "Goose, darling. Wild goose chase is how they say it."
After a moment, his arm slipped around her to assist. His enhanced strength would make up for the weakness Henri from the blood loss. He smirked at her. "No, darling. The excuses don't come until I have you alone in the safe house. That's when I start making excuses to press you against me." Even though James hadn't seen Henri in a long time, the circumstances didn't change the fact that he was happy to see her. Granted, they usually got shot at when they were together, so this was normal.
The cloak was working within normal parameters. There would be a slight distortion field around them, if anyone was watching. The cloak was decent. It made them vanish from visible detection as well as most electromagnetic detection. The downside was that the cloak couldn't hide their thermal signatures. Usually, James had to use special gear for that sort of thing. He just hoped that it would work. If not, then plan B involved carrying her. She wouldn't like it but it would have to do in a pinch.
"That kind of job, doesn't really pay like you think it would. That's why I don't give up the day job." James consulted his map system and gestured for her to follow him closely. It was only 6 blocks away from here. It would work. In theory. "Do me a favor, darling. Tell me if you get to a point where you can't go on. Don't push. It would be bad with that kind of a wound."
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 17, 2015 2:51:05 GMT -6
"I use it on occasion. Didn't think I'd need it on this job." It was like stepping into a favorite pair of shoes or an old pair of pants. Everything just fell back into place like nothing had changed. It was easy to fall back into old habits. Of course everything had changed. It had been years and they both had grown. But she would cling to old habits, at least for now. They were a small confort in this mess of a job.
"Oh yes, I've always told you when I can't go on. Ha!" She could make it to wherever they were going. She would get to wherever they were going. If she didn't collapse first. Or didn't get killed.
She saw movement down the road and stopped short. There were others who were after her that she'd thought she'd shaken. Others that had been more of a challenge for her that she didn't have time to deal with. She had been wrong. But she squeezed Alexei's shoulder and motioned for him to be still. Hopefully whatever enhancements he had wouldn't be enough to see through the cloak.
But he kept moving forward, and she saw one of his eyes flash red and look right at them. Well...the cloak worked for a little while. But it looked like this guy was aiming to finish the job he'd started with her side.
"A cloak. That's clever. But it can't hide everything. Hand over the file or I'll finish the job."
Henri growled in response to the threat. Like hell she was going to just hand it over now. After all this crap she wasn't going to hand it over to anyone. "Bite. Me. Asshole." She reached across and grabbed the pistol from Alexei's holster abs and started firing. Of course she was a shit shot right now and he moved into cover easily.
"Have it your way sweetie! You and your friend can go together." He called out, laughing.
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 19, 2015 17:17:48 GMT -6
"Yes, that is why I'm asking this of you. We can't afford your stubbornness tonight."
As Henri gripped his arm, James threw a new magazine into his pistol and passed it to her. The offender commenting on the cloak must have had some way of tracking them. An electronic eye. There it was.
James deactivated the cloak. No sense in wasting the extra energy. "You're very correct. Unless, I was hoping to get one of you alone." A smirk crossed the Winter Soldier's face.
The man with the electronic eye opened his mouth slightly. "You... but... you're..."
Winter Soldier grinned. "I got better. Unfortunately, you wont." He tossed his knife at the thug and slipped away from Henri to engage. The knife landed with a satisfying thump in the thug's thigh and the man scream.
James dashed over and smashed him in the jaw with a fist. The man went down and James kicked the gun away. Winter Soldier prepared himself for another attack.
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 19, 2015 20:38:20 GMT -6
Reaching backwards as Alexei left her, Henri found a wall to lean against. She'd let him handle the idiot. She did rather enjoy his anguished cry as the knife sunk into his thigh. How quickly one's confidence disappeared when you realize who you're up against. And the Winter Soldier was generally someone you didn't want to mess with.
It seemed their friend understood this too. He decided it wasn't worth the risk and threw down a few smoke bombs to obscure his exit. He pulled the knife out of his thigh and threw it back at its owner. He scrambled to his feet, grabbing for his gun and firing off a few wild shots.
Henri moved of her own accord, knowing she couldn't run after him. She had to jump. But if he got away, knowing that the Winter Soldier was not as rumored. She was not going to let that happen because she asked him for help. She jumped forward, moving her legs to give the illusion of running wth every port. On her last port, she reached for his head, grabbing it firmly even so she went down, her legs unable to support her now. She twisted violently, feeling the snap reverberate in her hands.
"Alignment at 30%. Structural integrity compromised. Full system failure im-" Henri yanked the plug out of her ear and slammed it on the ground.
"Ok...I can't go on. There. I told you." She grinned before promptly passing out.
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 20, 2015 16:21:37 GMT -6
Smoke grenades. It was a good idea in theory. Though the man wouldn't move very fast with that wounded leg,and James could catch him. Henri disappeared as she ported after him. James sighed. The woman never knew knew when to take it easy.
Henri reappeared behind the man and snapped his neck. Well, dead men and telling tales. He smirked at her words and then watched her collapse. This day was going well so far. Winter Soldier scooped Henri up and took off at a run.
He didn't like the way she just collapsed. It could have been any number of things. He slipped into the apartment of the two story building and grabbed a medical scanner. James needed to make sure that none of her internal organs were hit.
The scanner showed that Henri's organs were intact, but she had some sort of implant inside her. He grabbed a portable med kit and went about removing his patch job and the spent slug from the wound. He sewed her up and put a nanopatch on her to help mend the wound faster, followed by two injections: one to kill pain and another to help replace lost blood.
James leaned back in his chair and sipped some whiskey, while looking at the implant scans. "What are you hiding?"
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 20, 2015 19:03:15 GMT -6
There was lots of screaming, shouting, someone calling her name. A burst of light and searing pain in her back as she teleported to safety. Henri gasped awake in an unfamiliar room and lay still for a moment. Her mouth felt like cotton and her arms like lead so she wasn't too keen on moving yet anyhow. There was a dull ache in her side that her hand drifted over curiously. All patched up. She let her memories come back her and quiet her mind as she recalled how she'd gotten here.
The job had unexpected, unforeseeable complications. But she still had the data file. And she was going to sell it to the highest bidder. After she liked the asshole who hired her. She could do that in her own. She wouldn't ask Alexei for any more help.
Alexei.
Henri looked around the room, and found him sitting, glass of whiskey in hand as he read something over. He had to know she was awake, he was not that oblivious, at least to his environment. Taking a few moments, she steeled herself before sitting upright, groaning at the pain in her side. She leaned back against the headboard and hoped against hope that her legs would listen to her. But they just sat there, motionless. Useless as wings on a pig.
She sighed, putting one of her hands on her thigh and dragged her nails across it. She took a deep breath. She'd pushed too hard. And all of her equipment to fix it, at least temporarily, was back at her room in the hotel.
"...damn it..."
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Post by James Barnes Jr on Apr 22, 2015 1:15:25 GMT -6
As near as James could tell from the design, the implant allowed Henri to walk. That meant she must have suffered some kind of injury. James would question why she didn't mention it, but then again, it was very like her to forget to mention things like this. His further studies showed that her powers seemed to knock it out of alignment. Clearly, the device was not designed to be used by someone of her power set. While James could admire the engineering behind the device, the lack functionality after too much teleporting was an obvious flaw. What most people didn't know about James, was that since he built all of his devices, he'd taken a great deal of time to study engineering, both electrical and mechanical and was far from an amateur.
He wondered if he had anything in this safe house that would be useful in helping her realign it. Otherwise, her legs were going to be useless to her and that just made her more of a liability to this mission. He heard Henri's breathing change and didn't look up. James knew she was awake. He would give her a few moments to grasp her situation, before a direct confrontation was necessary.
"I'm not sure what you were expecting. I imagine that since you have the implant, you're aware that when it doesn't function, neither do your legs. I'm sure you weren't planning on telling me because of some bullshit excuse, but these are things I need to know, Henri. Your powers interfere with the damn thing. Suppose that guy wasn't the only one there? We could have been ambushed and killed." James struggled to keep his tone even. He didn't want to yell, but she more than anyone knew what could happen in a mission like this. She was a liability and could have killed them both.
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Post by Henri Batroc on Apr 22, 2015 1:45:26 GMT -6
Gritting her teeth and fisting her hands in the sheets, Henri resisted the urge to snap back at him. But she was pissed. She hated this feeling, feeling like a useless burden, a liability. And that's something she usually tried to avoid being. Hell, she hadn't even asked for his help until the last possible second, and now she was thinking maybe she'd made the wrong decision. She continued to stare at her legs as he gave her a lecture, her knuckles turning whiter by the moment.
"Then I would have gotten you out of there and lead them away. Working legs or no, I can still jump. And it's not like I could have just said, 'oh, by the way, I have shrapnel fused to my spine at the molecular level and sometimes my legs won't work' when I called!" She had also tried to keep her voice even, but gave up halfway through, her pride having taken enough of a beating tonight. She knew she shouldn't take it out on Alexei, he had come when she asked. She was going to have to wait for the idiot that had hired her. And everyone else. She was also going to have to see what the hell was on the drive that she stole, now that she had no intention of giving it up without a bidding war.
Henri took another breath and let it out forcefully through her nose before looking over at him. "I usually have complete control of these kinds of situations. However, even I could not have planned for the unexpected third parties when I was operating on mistaken good faith. People who hire Batroc, usually only hire Batroc. Not two bit amateurs."
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