Chapter Text
Bucky could list off about one thousand things he’d rather be doing than this.
Scoping out a drug cartel in the New Jersey heat with the rest of his team was one of them.
He genuinely did not understand how he managed to survive all of these political events and galas when he was a congressman.
And still, he smiled politely, shook hands, said his hellos to everyone who came in.
They all thanked him for the party and he did his best fake laugh at their boring jokes.
This wasn’t his party after all. It was Valentina’s.
Another stupid publicity stunt to try and get the ‘New Avengers’ in the world’s good graces.
The New Avengers; a team that he was for some reason the one deemed the leader of.
Which was exactly why he was here, at the tower in New York in a fancy suit, instead of reloading a gun whilst keeping an eye out for Carmon Rowe, the newest asshole trying to sell super soldier serum.
Their hopes were to catch him in the act, or well, to just catch him in general. The guy was freakishly good at evading arrest and it was getting on all of their nerves.
The last sting they’d set up in hopes of catching him didn’t go very well. They’d caught wind of his team picking up a new shipment at a dock in Hell’s Kitchen.
It seemed simple enough. Unfortunately, none of them were the ‘techy’ type. Bob was working on learning how to use some of the old computers they’d found is Stark’s storage but until then, they’d been going into mission blind.
They paid the price for that this time.
The mission was going smoothly. Rowe wasn’t there, which wasn’t ideal, but his number two, a woman that went by Agent A, was.
Getting her into custody could’ve been their ticket to finding Rowe and figuring out who he was getting his shipments from.
And they were close too.
Right up until they had Agent A and her team cornered. Suddenly she went from angrily glaring at all of them, to looking at something just above them, in fear.
Bucky had turned around in confusing, his eyes widening when he saw what she’d been staring at.
Two figures, standing above them on a shipping crate. It was too dark to make out any defining features but Agent A seemed to know who they were immediately, ordering her men to fire at them.
That’s when everything fell into chaos.
The figures jumped down and attacked, fighting with incredible speed and precision. Two clearly different fighting styles that somehow managed to work together perfectly. Bucky was slightly concerned, these two knew what they were doing, how come he’s never heard of them before?
What was worse, was that it ruined their entire mission. In the end, Agent A and the two figures were gone before any of them could stop them.
Bucky was 99% sure Valentina making him stay behind at the gala tonight was his punishment for messing that mission up.
When he had a second away from all of the guests, he quickly darted into a hall he knew the security cameras couldn’t see him in and pulled out his phone.
“Hey, just checking in, you find anything?” Bucky whispered.
“Oh hey! How’s the gala going? Have you found an excuse to leave yet?” Bob asked after picking up the phone.
Lucky for him, he didn’t have to go to any of the fancy parties. They all agreed it’d be a little risky.
“No not even close. Party’s just starting.”
“Oh I’m sorry. I know you wanted to go with Yelena and the others to Jersey to find Rowe-“
“Bob, focus please. Did you find anything?”
“Oh on the vigilantes from the other night? Yeah actually, a little bit, the footage you sent me wasn’t much but I was able to break down the feed enough to clear a few of the frames. It’s actually pretty cool what some of these computers can do once you understand all the fancy sciencey words…”
Bucky wanted so badly to ask Bob to stay on topic, but he also didn’t want to deter the kid from something he was clearly growing an interest in. As he listened to Bob start explaining how he was able to focused on the two vigilante’s in different parts of the video where the lighting managed to hit them just enough to catch some more defining details, he walked to the end of the hall where there was a railing overlooking the gala below.
As he people watched, he couldn’t help but notice a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked over just in time to see a man wearing sunglasses run right into one of the waiters, causing champagne glasses to fly everywhere.
“Crap.” He muttered, loud enough for Bob to hear over the phone.
“Everything okay?” Bob asked nervously.
Bucky turned and started heading towards the stairs, “Yeah, someone just made a mess, I’ll call you back, keep digging.” He hung up before Bob could respond. Already feeling a little annoyed as he forced his face to look concerned, heading over the accident.
“-Oh I’m so sorry, please I insist you let me pay for the dry cleaning, really- I’m so sorry!” Bucky rolled his eyes as he listened to the clumsy guest, his back to Bucky, apologize profusely to the waiter.
“Is everyone okay over here?” He did his best to sound as polite as possible. The waiter smiled nervously before leaving with the now empty champagne glasses. The man turned around and instantly Bucky felt guilty for being so annoyed.
“Oh yes everything’s okay! I’m so sorry for the disruption!” The man said with a smile as he rested his hands on top of a white cane.
‘Wow okay, I’m an asshole.’ Bucky thought to himself.
“Just wasn’t paying enough attention is all,” the man, the blind man, let out a sheepish laugh, adjusting his glasses.
“It’s alright, I’m just glad no one got hurt.” Bucky responded with a polite smile, fully aware of the dozens of people watching them, “James Barnes, it’s nice to meet you Mrrr.”
“Murdock! Matt’s fine though, it’s a pleasure to meet you in person Sergeant Barnes,”
The man, Matt, extended his hand which Bucky took, “I thought I recognized your voice from the news.”
Bucky laughed, “Well I’m honored, and please, Bucky,” he tried to ignore the quiet cameras clicking as he shook the man’s hand, “Now, I insist I buy you a drink to make up for the champagne Matt.”
Murdock smiled, his eyebrows raised slightly over his glasses, “Oh no, please let me, after the mess I made it’s the least I can do.”
They walked slowly over the bar, Bucky growing less and less tense the farther they got away from the cameras,
“I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with the work you and your team have been doing.” Matt said casually as they waited at the bar.
Bucky smiled, then felt a little embarrassed after he remembered Murdock wouldn’t be able to see it, “Well we just wanna try and help people as much as we can.”
Matt nodded understandingly, “Can’t agree more,”
When Bucky didn’t respond right away Matt let out an apologetic laugh, “Sorry, I’m a lawyer, helping the people who can’t help themselves is kind of our thing.”
Bucky couldn’t help but be a little surprised, and skeptical at that, “Can’t say I’ve met a lawyer with that ideology before.”
Matt laughed, “Unfortunately we’re a rare breed.”
Bucky smiled, something about Murdock’s demeanor just seemed so different. In all honesty, he looked a little out of place. Like a huge gala like this wasn’t all that familiar of a scene for him. It made Bucky feel a little at ease in a strange way.
“Funny enough, I could actually use a lawyer like you.” Valentina was probably going to kill him for trying to hire a lawyer to help them with the whole Avengers lawsuit without her permission, but maybe this was just a bit of payback for making him go to this gala in the first place.
Matt tilted his head, “Well in that case, please feel free to give me a call.” He pulled out a small white business card from his jacket pocket.
As he took it, he could feel the small indents in the card under his fingertips, braille.
Bucky was about to respond when suddenly a loud bang rang through the room.
Then, gunshots and screaming.
Instinctively, Bucky ducked down moments before something whizzed past him, shattering the glass mirror behind the bar.
When he looked back up, Matt was gone. He turned, trying to make out the lawyer amongst everyone in the crowd but was unsuccessful.
He did however, notice the several masked men dressed in dark tactical gear aiming their guns at innocent guests, forcing them to sit against the walls and give them their phones.
He let out a small sigh as several of those men surrounded him, guns trained on his head,
‘Well, at least I’m not bored anymore.’ he thought to himself.
—
Sitting against the cold wall of the banquet room with a bunch of scared guests around him wasn’t exactly what Matt had in mind for the night.
His plan had been simple, and it worked, well, it was working at least.
He needed to figure out why the new Avengers were in Hells Kitchen and what they had to do with the new drug cartel.
Talking with Agent A after he and Frank kidnapped borrowed her the other night wasn’t very helpful.
She gave them nothing, clearly preferring Frank kill her than saying a word, much to Matts displeasure and Franks enjoyment.
So, option B; break into the New Avengers gala and chat with one of them as Matt Murdock.
That part had worked. Getting Bucky’s attention was pretty easy when he was already clearly bored and looking for something to do. Unfortunately they just had to be interrupted right before Matt could even begin trying to pry out any details.
“No phone calls!” One of the men, the one Matt guessed was in charge, yelled out,
“Anybody steps out of line they die, understand?” He lifted up his gun dramatically. Matt rolled his eyes behind his glasses.
He was more focused on trying to figure out how he could get across the room to the circuit box hidden in the corner so he could shut off the lights. Once the lights were out he’d be able to actually do something.
Apparently though, Matt’s ability to attract problems was particularly potent tonight.
He was so distracted with trying to gauge whether or not the same bathroom excuse he used last time he got held hostage would work that he didn’t realize the same man who’d been making threats earlier, was now standing right in front of him.
“Hey! I’m talking to you asshole!” The man yelled, Matt cringed as angry spit flew out of his mouth.
“Oh, I’m sorry I-“ He did his best to sound calm but was interrupted.
“I said, do you have a fucking problem??” The man was looming over him, gun pointed at his face clearly trying to be as intimidating as possible. Matt fought back a laugh.
“No, I don’t-“
“Then what the fuck are you looking at asshole??” It occurred to Matt then that his cane was neatly folded up in his suit jacket pocket, and that it was likely he’d been facing the man without meaning too.
“Oh,” Matt let out a small laugh, “I apologize if I gave you that impression. I’m blind,” as he spoke he went to take his cane out of his pocket.
Turns out that was not the right move.
In seconds the man was pulling him up by his jacket with two other men at his side, both aiming their guns at Matt. Around him he heard several guests gasp but he ignored them.
“You trying to be a hero asshole??” This guy was really starting to get on his nerves.
“No- I’m sorry, I was just reaching for my cane-“
The man pushed him back and motioned for one of the other men to search him. Sure enough, he pulled out Matt’s folded up cane.
Matt smiled, “See, nothing to worry about.”
The man scoffed, shoving the cane into Matt’s chest, “Okay smart ass,”
To his side, Matt noticed a majority of the men who’d broken into the gala were surrounding the bar, in the middle of them was Bucky who’s heartbeat escalated the moment the man started interrogating Matt.
“Y’know, whatever it is you’re after, you really don’t need to put this many people’s lives at stake for it.” Matt spoke calmly, if Frank was there with him he’d probably be pissed, he may be blind, but he was fully aware there was still two guns trained on him right now.
The man simply laughed, seemingly almost impressed by Matt’s comment, “Oh really? How about I kill everyone and just leave you as my hostage then eh? That sounds more to your liking?”
Matt grit his teeth, “I just want to make sure you’re thinking this through. You’ve just attacked the Avengers Tower. I’m sure police are already waiting outside and in case you didn’t notice, only one of these new Avengers is actually present tonight, which means the others are likely on their way.”
Matt tilted his head to the side, “You really think you and your men are going to be able to take them on when they arrive?”
The man did not seem too happy with Matt’s observation, he stepped forward, angrily jabbing his pointer finger into Matt’s chest, “You got a death wish smart ass?”
Matt gave him a small smile, “I’m just saying if you want to get whatever you came for without hurting anyone, you might want to start making your demands soon.”
The man shook his head, letting out a disbelieving laugh, “Well, if you insist.”
With that, one of the other men grabbed Matt by the upper arm as they started walking towards the bar, dragging him with.
As they walked, Matt heard the sounds of a clock ticking behind on one of the far walls.
Shit. He’d complete forgot he promised Frank he’d meet him at a nearby bar to discuss what he got from Bucky. If he didn’t show up soon, Frank will figure out something’s up.
The idea of the Punisher showing up to the Avengers Tower and making an even bigger scene was less than ideal.
“Okay Barnes. Tell us where Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is. Now.”
Bucky let out an annoyed scoff, “Val? She probably got escorted out of the building the second you started shooting. What the hell do you want with her?”
“She screwed me and my gang over years ago. Messed up everything, I got ten years in prison because of that bitch. And her? She thinks she gets to be apart of the New Avengers? After everything she’s done? I don’t think so.”
Under his breath, Matt heard Bucky mumble, “Believe me, we don’t want her here either.” He forced his face to remain neutral.
“I want her in front of me in thirty minutes. Every minute that passes after that, I start shooting.”
He walked over to Matt and pushed him forward slightly, “Starting with him.”
Matt let out a huff. Oh Frank is going to be so mad at him. He had to hold back a laugh. Unfortunately, Bucky saw nothing funny about this, which, y’know, makes sense.
“Look, I can try and get her back here but I can’t guarantee she’ll actually listen to me, I don’t know how well you knew her, but she’s not exactly the self sacrificing type.”
Bucky shifted and Matt listened as every single gunman’s heart skipped a beat. All of them were still scared of him, even if they were doing their best not to show it.
“Just let Murdock go, I’m sure we can come to another arrangement.”
That didn’t seem to change the man’s mind, instead, it only seemed to strengthen his threat,
“‘Murdock’?” He repeated, “So you know this blind asshole personally?”
He heard Bucky’s fists clench, “No. We met tonight, he’s basically a stranger to me and killing him won’t help you.”
But the man only smiled, “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that then.”
With that, he tossed a phone to Bucky, “I want Valentina. Thirty minutes.”
—
Bucky wanted nothing more than to beat the ever loving crap out of every single one of these assholes.
The only thing stopping him was knowing how many innocent people were sitting out in the galas main banquet room right now.
He cursed quietly as he got off the phone. Valentina, like he suspected, was refusing to go inside until the others showed up and according to her, Yelena said they were still about forty five minutes away.
They only had about ten left.
“It’s alright Barnes, we’ll figure something out.” Matt said calmly from his spot in the room.
The men had brought them to a separate room, away from the other hostages. If Bucky had to guess it was an old storage room, or maybe a slightly oversized broom closest.
Matt had made himself comfortable on a large bucket he’d turned over to sit on. Under the door, Bucky could make out the shadows of two guards. Which meant there were at least a dozen men still unaccounted for and likely with the other hostages.
“You seem awfully calm for the situation we’re in right now.” Bucky remarked, leaning his shoulders against the wall and crossing his arms.
Matt simply shrugged, “Would you believe me if I said this isn’t the first time I’ve been taken hostage?”
Bucky raised an eyebrow, “Well if you spoke to those guys the same way you’re talking to these ones, I’m a little surprised you’re still alive to tell the tale.”
Matt laughed, “Yeah I’ve been told I have a bad habit of getting into unneeded trouble,”
He tilted his head to the side, “How much longer do we have?”
Bucky glanced down at the phone the man had given him, “nine minutes.” He looked back up at Matt, trying to read his reaction.
“You still don’t seem too worried.” In fact, Matt didn’t seem to really be paying attention at all.
He was turned slightly to the side, it almost looked like he was listening to something, but even with Bucky’s slightly enhanced hearing, he didn’t pick up on anything that’d be useful to them right now.
Matt let out a resigned sounding sigh, “Oh I am worried,” He responded, standing up suddenly, “Just now about what you think.”
Before Bucky could question him, the sounds of arguing caught his attention. More shadows of men appeared from under the door, he could hear yelling faintly and then-
More gunshots.
Before Bucky could react, the lights flickered, and then went out completely.
“What the hell?” His eyes weren’t adjusted to the lack of light. As he blinked, trying to make out the shapes in the room, he heard the sound of the door opening in front of him.
“Matt?” He questioned, no response. Shit.
Suddenly, Bucky could hear more screaming coming from the gala room. He took off running, deciding to try and find Matt along the way.
He couldn’t see shit. Every single light was off and amongst the chaos of people running around, gunshots, yelling and screaming, it was impossible to make out what was happening.
He realized quickly that the hostages were making their way to the exit but were being blocked off by two of the men. Bucky decided to handle that first.
He got the first guy down easy using the element of surprise. The second guy whipped his gun around but not fast enough. Bucky ripped it out of the man’s hand and used the hilt of the gun to knock the man unconscious. He wasted no time ripped the locked door open with his metal arm and yelling for everyone to leave.
As the hostages left, he ran out with them, the street lights made it much easier to make out the details of everyone outside.
Like Matt had guessed, the police were already here and immediately started tending to the guests. However, Bucky couldn’t see Matt anywhere in the crowd.
He turned around, the sounds of gunshots and yelling were growing quieter, as he quietly walked back inside, Bucky quickly figured out why.
Bodies. Unconscious bodies littered the debris and blood ridden ground.
Faintly he could make out the silhouette of three men fighting, one was clearly much more skilled than the other two. He took both men down rather easily. The moment they were on the ground, he pulled out a gun, aiming it at their heads-
“Don’t.” A voice said from somewhere behind the man that Bucky couldn’t see in the dark.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” The man with the gun responded.
“Frank. We talked about this. Don’t.” Bucky recognized that voice. Matt.
For a moment, Bucky didn’t think the man, Frank, was going to listen, but then he reluctantly lowered the gun and instead of shooting the men in the heads, shot them both in their legs.
Immediately the room was filled with pained screams before the man swiftly walked forward and knocked them both out with one kick each.
A beat of silence, and then, “That was unnecessary.” Matt said casually, coming up beside the man.
The man scoffed, “You’re a real piece of work y’know that?”
Now seemed like about the right time to make himself known, “Matt?” He called out.
Both men froze. Then, the man beside Matt raised his gun, pointing it at Bucky. Shit, he was still too far away to get to Matt.
“Hey, let him go asshole-“ Bucky began, at the same time as Matt began to speak,
“Frank- Jesus put it down-“
“You sure you’re allowed to say that Alter Boy?” If Bucky wasn’t so preoccupied he could’ve sworn the man almost sounded amused.
Before Bucky could speak again, the silence was interrupted by a loud ringing coming from his pocket. He glanced down to grab the ringing phone. When he looked back up, both men were gone.
“Shit” he muttered, running forward and trying to look around in the darkness to no avail.
Reluctantly, he picked up the phone, “Bucky?? Oh my god is that you? Are you okay??”
“Bob?” Bucky questioned, a little surprised,
“Yes! I’m so glad you’re okay! My computer alerted me that there were some gunshots in the gala and they immediately put my floor on lockdown. I tried to call but you wouldn’t pick up. Val sent me this number and I just thought I’d try and see if you still had the phone-“
Bob continues to ramble about how worried he was. Bucky let him, not really paying attention.
Instead, he began walking back towards the exit only to be stopped by his foot bumping into something.
He bent down to pick the object up.
A folded up white cane.
He remembered the card Matt had given him earlier that night and he pulled it out, feeling the raised indents with his thumb.
Something told him he’d be seeing Mr. Murdock again pretty soon.