Chapter Text
Bucky ran through the winding corridors of the building, looking for where Karli had gone. He slowed to a stop, listening for footsteps. To the left he could hear feet scuffling, and headed that way. As he rounded the corner, something hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back. He saw someone holding up a gun in front of him. Without a second thought, Bucky rushed into the room. A bullet whizzed passed his head before his right arm exploded in agony as another bullet struck his upper arm, shattering bone. He skidded to his knees in the middle of the room. The Flag Smasher with the gun walked up and pointed it at his head. He reached up with his left and grabbed it away from then. Gritting his teeth, he flipped it around and got up on one foot. Just as he was raising the gun, electricity shot through his vibranium arm. The pain was short lived, but he dropped the gun as his arm went dead. As he was reeling from the assault, his foot was kicked out from under him, causing him to fall on his face.
Hands grabbed Bucky by the shoulders, forcing him to stifle a scream as he was hauled back up to his knees. He quickly managed to balance himself and the hands released him. He knelt panting for a moment, before Karli’s voice spoke up in front of him.
“I do want to apologize for this, beforehand Barnes. But seeing as you’re the only other person around with the serum who isn’t one of my friends, you’re unfortunately my only option to test this out,” and funnily enough, she did sound apologetic. Bucky tried to make sense of what she was talking about, but between the throbbing pain in his right arm and trying to keep himself upright with the deadweight of his left, he couldn’t make sense of it. A hand threaded its way into his hair, and without thought, he started leaning into it. Then a second later, the hand turned into a fist and yanked his head up and back. He gasped before glaring as Karli’s face appeared in his line of sight.
“Again, I am sorry. Truly. But I need to know what will happen if I do this, before we do it ourselves,” An apologetic smile twitched on her lips. She then pulled a small blue vial with a needle on one end of it out of her pocket. Bucky’s eyes widened as he finally realized what Karli was about to do. She slammed the needle into his exposed neck. Mostly out of shock, he cried out as Nagel’s serum entered his system.
When Karli released his hair, he immediately crumpled to the ground. It was both a familiar, yet a completely new sensation as the Super Soldier Serum rushed through his veins once again. He began convulsing on the floor as the Flag Smashers stood by watching. With a far greater effort than it should have been, he kicked out at the nearest one. He wasn’t surprised when they easily dodged out of the way, and kicked him back in the back of the thigh. Normally a blow like that would hardly phase him, but in his current condition it caused him to scream and his body to lock up.
“What did you do that for!? Now they can figure out where we are!” he heard Karli shout over the blood rushing in his ears. He couldn’t help the pained smile that spread across his lips. He’d been so caught up in the horror of what had just happened to him, he’d forgotten that Sam was somewhere in the building too.
Knowing a weak link when he saw one, he forced himself to roll onto his back and kick at the same Flag Smasher again, screaming once more as his shot and broken arm hit the ground uncontrollably. Amazingly, his boot connected with it’s target this time. It didn’t seem to do much, but Bucky was hardly surprised. In his current state, he wasn’t going to be able to cause the kind of damage he normally would. Still, the Flag Smasher cursed before going to kick him back again. However, Karli decided to step in at that moment and push her comrade away from Bucky’s prone form.
Over her shoulder, she barked out orders to the rest of them, “Shut him up, now! Then we’re leaving, we can’t get caught here. We’ll find him later to see if it worked!”
Before she had even finished, he felt someone grabbing him by the back of his jacket and dragging him away. He wanted to struggle, but his body refused to cooperate. Before he knew it he was tossed to the side, his face landing on what felt like some kind of track system. Just as he realized he’d been tossed in the path of an industrial door, said door came rushing towards his face. With both his arms disabled, and his body unresponsive as the two serums in his veins competed with each other, he could do nothing but widen his eyes as the heavy steel door crashed into his face and smashed the back of his head into the doorframe. Instantly, his eyesight blacked out for a few seconds and he lost all comprehension of where he was and what was happening. His vision cleared enough to see the door coming at him again, and then everything just stopped.