You're the youngest member of the Avengers.

Tony took you onto the team because of your unique abilities and tendencies to allow yourself to be expendable... which, unfortunately, can be a pretty good thing when you have to choose between saving the world and keeping yourself from bodily harm.

Bucky the ex-assassin and former Winter Soldier, however, couldn't be more unhappy with that sentiment.

He's taken you under his wing, in a way, because you remind him of Steve when they were both young. Scrappy, plucky, determined. As brave as all-fire and sweet like sugar, too. You follow him around like a little duckling, tagging along wherever he goes. You're his little shadow, and he has to admit that it's nice to have someone look at him like he hung the stars in the sky. Like he's not... frightening.

So when Bucy finds out that Tony has been letting you go out to patrol the city on your own, he's furious. You're not trained like Peter is. You can't handle criminals by yourself.

The rest of the Avengers assure Bucky that you're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, but he knows different. If you're faced with the evil out there in the world, you'll stall. You've never had to protect yourself, never had to take a life. You're used to tackling pick-pockets and chasing down vandals, not fighting arms dealers and traffickers.

He's proven right when you don't come back to the Avengers Tower that night.

Instead of sticking around for I-told-you-so's, he gears up and heads out with the steely look in his eyes he thought he'd left behind when he was freed from the grips of HYDRA.

He skulks the alleys all throughout the night, sniffing out any traces of where you might have gone. Your tracking beacon -- which he skillfully had Bruce inject into your arm while you slept -- is on the fritz, showing you at one location and then popping up somewhere else.

He makes his way out of the city and through a scraggly patch of half-dead forest that he wasn't familiar with. But your tracker showed that you were somewhere nearby, and so Bucky had to hope that he'll find you, and soon. He has a terrible feeling about your disappearance.

Through an open space between a thicket of spindly pines, he catches sight of a chain-link fence topped with razor wire, with a broad antenna dish slowly spinning on top of some kind of small building made of dull concrete with no windows. The place reeks of something underhanded and government-funded.

Bucky gives a low growl, scanning the area. He shouldn't be here, because he can see guards stationed holding automatic rifles at the gate entrance, but he's not leaving until he finds you.

He buzzes your smartwatch, one that Tony programmed for you for your birthday, but there's no reply. He tries again, and hears a faint ping from somewhere off towards his right... along with the sound of dogs barking, and a rough voice barking out orders.

"Come on! The intruder must still be around here somewhere. The boss'll have our hides if we don't take care of them. I'm positive I got a bullet into them--"

Bucky's face goes pale, the pieces of the puzzle slotting together. So, you were nosing around here and got caught... and possibly shot. He has to find you before that search team does.

As silent as a wraith, he picks his way through the undergrowth until he finds drops of blood splattered across the shriveled plants. Like a wolf that’s caught the scent of a dying deer, he follows the trail, keeping low so as not to be seen, but still moving as quickly as he can without making any noise.

He hears a weak groan from a trampled cluster of bushes down in a shallow dip in the forest floor. He’s at your side in an instant.

You’re curled up in the leaf litter, trying to hide. Your suit, which is made of a flexible, durable, camouflage pattern special-made for keeping you safe on missions, is torn open on the side to reveal bloodied flesh where the hostile shot you. Your skin is pale and clammy, your breathing shallow.

“Kid? Shit, what happened? Shh, quiet. They’re out hunting for you. We gotta bounce.”