Harry had almost gotten used to being able slip by unnoticed. He wasn't pleased that things had gone back to much how they had been back in the Wizarding World. The past few months of fame had just been a reminder of why he didn't like it- even if it was more tolerable now that he was sharing it with his team-mates.
Though to be fair, wearing his uniform might have something to do with the attention he was gathering. He had asked Tony for a more understated version of it, but had been blown it off. Still, the protection it offered was invaluable, after everything he'd been through there was no way he was taking any chances, and he liked to show some distinction between himself and Shield. He wasn't just another faceless agent like the two men flanking him, he was an Avenger.
His time spent in El Paso on the Mexican border had, to some extent, prepared him for this outing to Mexico City. Though nowhere near fluent, he'd picked up a few words and phrases in Spanish, enough to catch snatches of what they were saying about him- exclamations that it was 'him', talk of some video from his time in New York, speculation about what he was doing here, and a few comments about his bum.
He'd have to have words with Tony and Pepper for how snug they made this thing.
He brushed it all aside, he had a job to do. It wasn't his first official Shield mission, but it was the first where he was mostly on his own. It was a simple job, they were supposed to meeting up with an archeological team that had discovered a 'potentially anomalous artifact'. No resistance or foul play was expected. The only hitch had been the delays on the tarmac, and now it was evening- not quite dusk. He followed the two Shield agents through the crowd. "Sorry Harry, change of plans." One of the yelled "We're going to have to dodge the crowds, this way!" Harry followed them to an alleyway, but something felt… wrong.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"We have a car set up for us over this way." The agent explained impatiently "We should get a move on."
Harry bit his tongue. Why did it feel like he was walking into a trap? Either he was paranoid, or he was in the middle of a trap. He peered from side to side, a group of young men were just a head of him, clutching packs close to their bodies. Another small group was behind him. Just because you were paranoid it didn't mean they weren't out to get you.
Harry ducked into a side-alley, and heard shouting from behind. Without any further thought, he ran. Gunfire barked out, and he felt the impact of bullets against his uniform. Harry responded in kind by blindly firing spells behind him. Some of them connected, he could tell with satisfaction, judging from their shouts and the impact of bodies on the ground.
He tapped his earpiece- a new Stark Industries model, shielded from EMP and nigh impossible to jam (according to Tony, at least). "Can anyone read me? I've been ambushed, situation is-" He paused, his heart freezing in his chest.
The Winter Soldier.
Harry had been able to put his mysterious would-be assassin out of his mind, what with everything that had happened since then. After the events of New York, he could pretend that some shadowing something wasn't trying to kill him and he had no idea who or what it was. Not entirely, though, that was, after all, why he'd one this protective uniform. He was very grateful for it now.
"-bad, very bad."
He had an assault rifle, and Harry reflexively held up a shield charm. The bullets clanged dissonantly against it, and Harry belatedly realized that they had all been aimed straight for his head.
"We're on our way." Harry heard Steve's tense voice over the comms. "What's the situation?"
Thank god. Steve, Natasha, and a small team were elsewhere in Mexico, dealing with a cartel. It was a bit beneath their payroll, but then again it was on of their first missions, it made sense that Shield wanted them to cut their teeth on something smaller. They had just dropped him off, so they shouldn't be too far away, though he wasn't sure how quickly they'd be able to get to them without, like, dropping out of the quinjet.
Chillingly, originally the plan had been for him to go down the Mexico alone. It was lucky that Hill had slotted in a concurrent mission for Steve and Nat.
Harry made a few blind turns, easily stunning one of the goons who had looped ahead of to try to outflank him and tossing spells backwards. Just as the Winter Soldier rounded the turn, Harry blasted open a door and- bullets whizzing by him- dashed into a nearby building. He blindly threw spells behind him, as he scrambled through a hallway and to a marked stairwell. He chanced a glance backward- fuck. He was right on his tail. He sent a trio of stunners at the assassin, but he deftly used his metal arm to deflect them. "Shit." He said.
Thinking fast, he levitated himself, shooting up like a cork and banging his shoulders painfully against the stairway on his way up. He tipped himself over into the top landing and staggered back to see a grappling hook shooting upwards right behind him, latching against the railing. "Diffindo!" He barked, in his haste regressing back to verbal spells. The line snapped and he heard the satisfying thunk of his pursuer crashing to the ground from height.
He moved back, trying to formulate a strategy. He should be able to take them. He hadn't done too badly against the Winter Soldier even when he'd only had the barest amount of magic. It was just that he'd been ambushed, outnumbered, and off balance. Now he could regroup and take them out one by one.
"Harry, status!" Steve's voice came through.
"It's the Winter Soldier again, with friends." He said quickly "I'll see if I can-"
Harry cut off his words as his pursuer lifted himself up from the stairwell and landed on the floor in front of him with something resembling catlike grace. Clearly, he hadn't bought himself as much time as he had hoped- not more than a minute.
Harry focused, and sent a blasting curse at him. It was perhaps the most powerful spell in his arsenal, and it took concentration for him to pull off. That metal arm once raised to intercept it, which somehow dissipated the destructive potential of the curse, but it still sent him crashing back into the doorframe. The assassin went down like a sack of bricks, that metal arm for once working against him by putting him off balance.
Any thoughts that this might just turn out to be easy shatter as the window next to him shattered. A bolt of plasma pierced flashed through it, and then pierced his torso, cooking through his uniform and cauterizing the wound it made. "FUCK!" Harry screamed, throwing himself down to avoid follow-up shots. It dimly registered in Harry's mind that that wasn't a normal sniper rifle, but really, he had more pressing concerns.
"Harry!" Now it was Nat in his ear "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
The Winter Soldier recovered, lifting himself up while Harry reeled from his wound. When Harry looked up, he was lunging at him, correctly judging that Harry was weaker at close range. Harry's attempt at a rushed blasting curse misfired, going wide and destroying part of the ceiling. His attacker struck him with his metallic arm, but Harry's hastily constructed shield charm deflected the blow. However, while the spell covered his upper body, but it couldn't block the follow up kick the drove into his knee. It gave out painfully with an awful snapping sound that was overshadowed by his scream.
Harry fell to the floor and dropped his shield to send out a reflexive expelliarmus. This struck true, and sent his attacker backwards, but this time he was more prepared for it. His fingers dug into the floor, ripping up the tiling and slowing him into a controlled slide.
Harry gripped the side of the wall and tried to drag himself up. This was a mistake. Another shot of plasma zipped through the window, this time piercing his chest. Harry cried out again, his voice hoarse as pain stabbed at his lung protested the action. He staggered back and again fell to the floor. Breathing suddenly became incredibly painful, making it difficult to focus on anything. "HARRY!" Natasha was shouting in his ear, sounding frantic. "We're almost there, just hold on!"
The assassin advanced again, drawing a pistol and firing repeatedly at him. Harry was forced to keep up a shield to keep him at bay as he scooted himself back. He couldn't cast two spells at once, something which his assassin had discovered and was now exploiting. As long as he kept the initiative by taking potshots, Harry couldn't do anything.
The sniper wasn't idle either. While Harry was no longer in view of a window, his location wasn't much of a mystery to his attacker. The rifle seemed to have a long recharge time, but over the next few minutes his next shots began blowing out the wall beside Harry. Over the next few minutes, the assassin and the sniper drove him backwards, until Harry' back was literally against the wall, nowhere to go.
It was then that Harry did something very stupid.
His opening came when the Winter Soldier had to reload. It was just a few seconds, but more than enough time to get off a spell. If he'd had time (and hadn't been in excruciating pain) perhaps he'd have been able to find a better way out of this, but in his current state, only one thing came to mind.
Throwing himself out the window.
Unfortunately, he couldn't reach the window, so he did the next best thing. Blasting away the already half-destroyed wall and rolling over.
Harry hadn't considered the height of the drop (four stories) or had time to see what was beneath him (a car). He was able to slow his descent, but as he hadn't been expecting the car, he landed awkwardly on his arm, which erupted in pain. His fall mostly broken, he finally tumbled behind the car, his head bashing against concrete.
-----
"Stark, how quickly can you get to Mexico City?" Steve barked.
Tony Stark, having no context at all for this question, was rendered momentarily speechless.
"Steve, New York is over 2000 miles away, it'd take an hour at least." Natasha snapped bitingly.
"Allow me to introduce you to the Mark 40." Tony retorted "I can go Mach 5 in this thing, still needs a bit of testing but I can be there in half an hour."
"Use it." Steve said shortly "Harry's under attack. We don't know by who, but it sounds serious."
"On it."
Natasha winced as gunshots rang out through the coms. Judging by Harry's breathing he was running. Steve looked over to her "He'll be okay."
Natasha gripped the controls of the quinjet tighter, her knuckles white. "This thing needs to go faster."
"Fuel injection override." Tony chimed in "Red switch under the plastic cap, top left-" Natasha flipped the switch with a grunt of acknowledgment.
"Agent Romanoff, you're off course." Agent Sitwell said through the coms as they felt the acceleration subtly push them back into their seats.
Neither of them had the patience for the Agent at the moment, but Steve went up to bat. "Harry's under attack, we're on our way to assist."
"Shit!" Sitwell cursed. "Do that. I'll see if any forces in the area can help."
Steve's gut churned as he heard the fight progress through the coms. It didn't feel right, having one of his own in combat and not being there to help them. He'd already lost one too many people in battle.
"This kid has a knack for trouble, doesn't he?" Stark quipped.
"Not the time, Stark." Steve grunted, while Natasha scowled.
"Diffindo." They heard Harry bark through the coms. Things quieted down for a bit after that, giving them the opportunity to learn that it was the Winter Soldier after Harry, again.
Stark was right, Harry did just have rotten luck.
When Harry was hit, and screamed, Natasha's façade began to break down. Beneath her cold exterior, she was panicking. Steve breathed to calm himself, just focus on things one at a time.
It was the sort of mantra that had led him through his half-baked plan to rescue Bucky from Hydra. It had steadied him in that final battle with Red Skull, where if one thing had gone wrong, most of the planet would have been destroyed. He'd clung to it like a lifeline when he'd been cast adrift in this strong, new world.
"Avengers, what's your status?" Sitwell checked in.
"Booking it." Tony said.
"Coming in over the drop zone." Steve reported, all business.
"Wait, drop zone?" Sitwell asked.
Natasha decelerated hard, having waited until the last minute to do so. As soon as he could safely stand, Steve began preparing to jump.
That was when Harry screamed again, and Natasha lost it. "HARRY!" She shouted, and then tried to reassure him, or more likely herself.
"Romanoff, get us in over his location, now. As low as you can get." Steve ordered cutting through her panic. "I'll jump, you land us safely for evac." His decisiveness steadied her, and with a clear task to focus on, she executed it without hesitation.
Steve dropped.
Paradropping was usually a hit or miss affair. It had been morso back in the '40s. GPS positioning helped and so did flying dangerously low, as Nat had been. Accuracy also improved when you cut your chute early.
Steve wasn't an idiot. He knew, from experience, what his body could withstand. From this height he'd be aching tomorrow, but he wouldn't die as long as his Shield absorbed the bulk of the impact- Vibranium was weird like that. Without the Shield… well that wasn't worth thinking about.
The upside was that when he crashed into the building, shaken himself off, and gotten his bearings, he found that was only a two blocks away from Harry's location. He set off in a dead run, flinging his Shield at man wielding an assault rifle and catching it on the rebound. He had the element of surprise, and was able to rush through several of them before coming under fire. Bullets pinged off his Shield for a moment as Steve thought through his options. He was at the corner of the intersection, and Harry's locator was reading that he was along the alley to his left.
So Steve crashed through a window, breaking apart the frame as he did so, through an empty apartment room and rushed out the door. Then cut back through another window out into the street next to Harry. He was sheltered behind a car, looking much worse for wear. He'd taken a beating, and possibly fallen from a window. The car itself was full of bullet holes, and its presence had probably saved Harry's life. The same gunner that had stalled him earlier was still ineffectively shooting him.
Harry stirred weakly, clearly weak and disoriented, but he still managed to utter "Sniper."
The warning was exactly what Steve needed. He instantly noticed the glint of the sniper's scope and adjusted his Shield just in time to block a plasma bolt, that hissed and dissipated on contact. His eyes went wide- that didn't look like Hydra weapons he had seen in the war, but it did look a lot like Chitauri weaponry.
"Nat, how are you on landing?" Steve asked.
"How is he?" Natasha demanded.
"Been worse…" Harry said, his drained voice barely a whisper next to the gunfire.
"That's not exactly reassuring." Stark chipped in.
Steve began pulling Harry back through the building, using his free arm to use his Shield to protect them both. The remaining gunman, seeing that shooting wasn't getting anywhere, chucked a grenade at them. Big mistake. Steve smoothly bounced it off his Shield and sent it back at the attacker- it quite literally blew up in his face.
He grimaced- he didn't like killing, but it was often unavoidable in combat- and continued to pull back and behind a wall. The sniper wouldn't be a threat from this position, but there possibly other gunmen, and there was still this legendary assassin. He couldn't let his guard down.
"Fuck it." He heard Natasha mutter "On my way." He wondered what stunt she had pulled to land the quinjet.
"Be advised, we have a sniper using possible Chitauri weaponry, possible remaining gunmen, and the Winter Soldier is still unaccounted for. Harry is incapacitated, but I'm in a defensible position. I'll hold here until backup arrives." He informed them.
As the minutes ticked by, the tension slowly drained from Steve's body. In all likelihood the would-be assassins had withdrawn as soon as it became apparent that reinforcements were here.
He almost thrown his Shield at Natasha when she suddenly appeared from further within the building. "No contacts." She said, crouching down to Harry. She released a breath as she placed her hands on his chest. "He needs medical attention."
"The area's not secure, yet." Steve said, "We'll need to make do for now. Check him over, I'll stay on watch. How are you doing, Stark?"
"Fifteen minutes out, Rogers." Stark said "I can't believe you guys had all the fun without me."
Steve rolled his eyes "Well, you get to make sure the area's clear, when you can find the time."
"Hey! It's not like I can break the flight speed record, yet."
"What's the situation, Rogers?" Sitwell cut in.
"We've got things in hand. Agent Romanoff and I are staying put with Harry, waiting for Stark to clear the area."
"Good. Emergency services are en route, though I imagine Stark will get there first given the chaos out there."
"Understood."
----
"I don't understand." The assassin asked, "Why did you call me off?"
"Reinforcements were less than a minute away. We had to pull you back, we aren't going to have you face the Avengers alone." Sitwell told him irately. The reason for his anger was obvious, the mission had failed. That had only happened once before.
"I could have killed him; it would have been easy." It didn't make sense. They'd never stopped him before. They'd never stopped him from killing someone before.
"Don't question your orders, agent. It wasn't worth the risk." Sitwell said in a clipped tone "And we need one more thing from you."
"Of course."
"The two agents that accompanied Potter- kill them."
"Understood." He knew that the agents in question were complicit in the op, but the call wasn't his to make.
His wasn't to reason why.