Race for Barnes

Batman stood at the spot where they had found Natasha, ignoring chaos around himself, with suits running around and the sounds of sirens blaring. His gaze focused, he activated the scanners embedded in his suit.

With the activation of his sensors, the world before him changed. Looking around he began to construct a crime scene. Right below the were various drops of blood, majority of it belonged to Natasha however the others belonged to a second individual, running it through his database brought up a name, Kraven.

However this brought about questions, why was Kraven working with Zemo? 

Having obtained the identity of Natasha's assailant, Batman continued to reconstruct the scene. The identity of the enemy helped, however he wanted to figure out what it was exactly that he had done to Natasha as she had entered a sort of coma with the doctors unaware of how to wake her up.

Taking in the evidence, Batman determined Natasha had chased Kraven down to this hallway and two had engaged in a sort of a standoff, as Batman continued to reconstruct he was able to determine a shot had been fired, from Natasha. However from the fact that Kraven's blood loss hadn't increased it was likely that her shot hadn't connected.

Someone of Natasha's caliber however was unlikely to miss a shot especially when it was this close, comparing what he had gained so far with the report from the people who had already gone over the scene. Batman was bale to determine the bullet had not been recovered. Kraven must have used something to block it then, and taking advantage to move closer to Natasha.

 A struggle had occurred and Natasha had tried to get off a few more shots, at this Batman looked up. The three bullet holes above suggested Kraven had managed to force her gunfire towards the ceiling before disarming her and tossing the gun away.

Batman looked to where the gun had been recovered, before continuing. They then engaged in hand to hand which Kraven landing a few heavy hits which caused Natasha to bleed, the fight went on for a while with Natasha gaining the upper hand a couple of times.

She managed to get behind him and then.... and then she fell. Something was missing here, but Batman couldn't figure out what it was exactly. 

Having obtained what he could, Batman walked out of the hallway spotting T'Challa seated on a bench. The prince... king now, the king of Wakanda was lost in thoughts. He had an ornate silver ring which he continued to toys with between his fingers as he stared of into nothing.

Batman wanted to speak to him, this was the son of his friend. But no matter how many words rushed to the tip of his tongue none came out, he thought of advising T'Challa to stand down. However he knew, just like that rainy night all those years ago, nothing would stop T'Chaka.

He needed more proof to declare Bucky as innocent.

Receiving an alert, Batman moved his fingers to his ear accepting a call.

"Batman, you alright?" Steve's voice came over the coms.

"I'm okay" Batman gave a curt response, as he noticed from the corner of his eye that T'Challa had left. "I heard about Nat" there was a short pause after Steve spoke those words.

"She has people looking after her, she will be okay" Batman reassured Steve but it did little to assuage him. "Any word on who and what happened to her exactly"

"Steve, I know what you are thinking. Don't. I know Barnes didn't do this and I will make sure the world knows that as well. Leave this this to me."

"You believe Bucky didn't do it? That's all the reason for me to be out there".

"Your relations to him are known to everyone it would be best if you stay away from this Steve especially during this time."

"You telling me that, last I checked you are the one they want to arrest. And yet there you are right before them"

"Don't misunderstand Steve immediately all this is over they will be back on me. You getting involve will only make this worse".

"I can't just leave him" with those words the line went dead. Batman turned his head towards a certain direction. He knew Steve was not far from here and soon enough he would be heading out to find Bucky, with T'Challa already gone this had turned into a race.

The stone had been cast and now Batman had to do everything to stop this from devolving into civil war. "Sebastian" tapping his gauntlet Batman connected with Sebastian, "Yes sir".

"The image of the winter soldier released to the public is a doctored one. I need you to decode it and produce the real image before, all this goes too far"

"Right away sir, what about you?"

"A tip just came in, Barnes location has been found. I need to get to him before the others"

"Very well sir, good luck" As he ended the communication with Sebastian, he looked up to see the Batwing above him attracting attention from everyone around him. Firing his grappling hook, Batman pulled himself into the Batwing and flew off.

----------------

"It would seem you would have failed without the Backup"

Zemo snapped his head around to see Kraven seated in his hotel room, resting his legs atop a coffee table and biting down on a strip of Bacon. Zemo's expression hardened as he focused on Kraven, staring him down before speaking up.

"The Batman's interference was unaccounted for"

Kraven chuckled at those words, "unaccounted for? we warned you of him but you underestimated him." 

"You and your friends overestimate the man dressed as a flying rodent" Zemo spat back, his words causing Kraven to loose his carefree demeanor as he put his legs down from the coffee table and stood to his full height. Now looking down at Zemo, he spoke up.

"First of all they are not my friends, merely partners with a common goal and secondly... the bat isn't just a man, there is nothing mundane about that man."