thearena | when enemies are at your door i'll carry you away from war

Who | Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson
What | Sam keeps trying to protect Bucky
Where | the forest
When | week 6
Warnings/Notes | violence, talk of mind control and torture, will update as needed

Sam's maybe been taking more risks this arena than he usually does. It's not intentional, not really, it's just - every single one of his allies is either at a physical disadvantage or has a giant target shining right over their heads. It feels like the arena's been throwing shit at them near constantly. Hell, the arena has been throwing shit at them near constantly, both the usual arena stuff and launching a full on assault any time one of them uses their powers. So if he feels more protective of his friends than usual, if he feels like he needs to take more chances to keep them safe, it's not undeserved.

Especially Bucky. As soon as Sam realized this was a powers arena, he knew what that meant for Bucky. Another chance for Bucky's super soldier healing factor to kick in, to go into overdrive healing the damage done to his brain, and Sam will do whatever it takes to get Bucky as long as possible with it.

At this point, he's leaning towards doing whatever it takes to make Bucky win, even though he knows that's not what Bucky wants, even though they've talked about how they're both in this just to protect their friends. Normally Sam tries to do his best never to do something he knows Bucky doesn't want, but this isn't normally. It's not like Sam's in the best shape, either. He's hungry and exhausted and they never did figure out what the hell was up with all of them falling sick like that, and he's at the point where making sure Bucky doesn't reset after this, that all that healing isn't undone, is looking pretty damn good.

But that's the kind of long term planning that's a little beyond Sam at the moment. Right now, this late in the arena, it's a struggle just to get enough food for all of them, and his attention is split between hoping there's something left in the forest for him and Bucky to hunt, and keeping an eye out for anything in here that might be looking to hunt them.

Still, he hadn't exactly been expecting the trees to turn on them, and by the time he sees the roots of one of them in particular moving, it's almost too late.

"Bucky!"

Yeah, maybe Bucky's already spotted them, and yeah, maybe Bucky could move out of the way himself - especially if he used those super soldier reflexes - but Sam's not taking any chances. He launches himself at Bucky, pushing him out of the way at the same time as he twists to aim his wand at the roots. He's going to end up either on top of Bucky or with his ass on the ground with this stunt, he better have his weapon at the ready.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bucky walks under a halo of light everywhere he goes and it stopped being funny, if it ever was to begin with, weeks ago. He's tired of standing out like a beacon to every person out there, ready to bring trouble on himself and all those who stick with him.

At first he'd tried to argue it was better he go it alone (once he'd brought Steve back into the fold anyway) and quickly had his suggestions shot down. Walking trouble-magnet or not, apparently Avengers still stick together.

Avengers also still need food and clean water, which is getting harder to find as time goes on and prompting riskier ventures afield.

He hears it first as a strange creaking, like the branches are being buffeted by the wind, except there's no wind to buffet. His eyes shoot up about the time that Sam yells out in warning and Bucky is about to hurl himself forwards when Sam's weight impacts with him and saves him the effort -- though not necessarily the bruising from a rough and unprepared landing. "Get off!"

Bucky's not meaning to be rude but with the forest itself attacking them there's no time to be polite about getting Sam's weight off him so he can actually do something about it.

Bucky doesn’t have to tell Sam twice. He’s already shooting even as he goes down, firing off blasts of electricity at the roots nearest them. He rolls to his feet, scorching another one as it attempts to whip itself at them, noting in grim satisfaction that yeah, apparently this tree doesn’t like lightning just as much as any other tree, sentient and malicious or not.

“Get out of here!” he shouts, planting himself between and the tree.

He’s probably wasting his breath, because he doesn’t really think Bucky will leave him alone to finish taking on the freaking attack tree by himself, but he tries anyway.

"No, not without you!" Bucky snaps back at Sam and -- deja vu hits him hard, makes him pause and then have to dive out of the way of an incoming tree root. A second later and he's pulled out his sword, swinging and chopping at the root until it breaks. It's harder to cut through than he would have thought.

He has no idea what Sam's thinking, expecting Bucky to cut and run while he takes on the monstrosity in front of them alone. Better they both run or take the thing on together. Sam should know better by now than to think Bucky would leave him alone, that's for sure.

Bucky dodges again to land next to Sam, sword up and ready.

And yeah, there it is. It's exactly what Sam had been expecting, but somehow, hearing Bucky actually say it is both real damn frustrating and a lot bit touching. He does know better than to expect Bucky to leave him - most of the time, he counts on that, on how much he knows he can trust Bucky.

This is what Sam gets for making friends with a bunch of stubborn, protective jackasses; it's way too damn difficult when he wants them to just get with the program and let him do the protecting. He sweeps his wand out in an arc, charring any vegetation that even looks like it's going to move towards them.

"I'll be right behind you, okay, just let me cover you!"

Well when he puts it like that.

Bucky can't help but stare a moment at the bolts of electricity that shoot of the wand to decimate the attacking tree's. For such a small thing it's power is incredible, an uncomfortable and blunt reminder of just how advanced Capitol technology is.

"... stay close to me!" he calls back after a couple of seconds. They don't have time to delay and argue about it, Bucky's going to have to trust that Sam will do just that. He starts to move, keeping an eye and ear out for incoming attacks as well as making his friends is where he says he'll be.

The whole damn arena is a reminder of how advanced the Capitol's technology is, as far as Sam's concerned, but yeah, it's a little more real when it's coming from something in his hand. Right now, he's a little too grateful to have something to use against this to give too much of a damn, though.

He gives Bucky a salute, then focuses on zapping the twitching roots enough to hopefully make them reconsider for a moment.

Just long enough for Sam to back away, swinging the wand as he moves, sticking close enough to Bucky to be able to cover their retreat.

Bucky doesn't run as fast as he could, not until he's sure that Sam's bolting at his heels. The noise of the tree's starts to fade as they stumble along, escaping the trap for safer climes. He doesn't stop until he's absolutely certain they're safe though and the only sounds are from him and Sam.

Then he stops, skidding a little across the wet earth before turning to Sam, "Are you okay?"

when enemies are at your door i'll carry you away from war

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