Player Name: Spiffy Sebby McSpuddington
Alias: The Winter Soldier, The Asset, Karpov's Pet/Karpov's Dog, Buck, Bucky, Sergeant Barnes, зимний солдат (pronounced: zimniy soldat trans: Winter Soldier)
Real Name: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
Moral Alignment: Lawful evil
Affiliation: KGB/HYDRA
Character Origin & Backstory:
.:Pre-War Bucky:.
Bucky was born in Brooklyn, New York where he met and grew up with his best-friend-forever,
Stephanie Rogers. The pair were thick as thieves. Meanwhile in Europe, Germany crept towards its Second World War where things were getting pretty messy.
Bucky was drafted into the military, and over the course of his training in the military, Bucky achieved the rank of Sergeant and was assigned to the 107th Regimen. Things were going pretty well for him, however his luck would run out when America became more heavily involved in the Second World War after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Barnes was deployed to fight the Nazi forces in mainland Europe. .:World War Two and First HYDRA Kidnapping:.
During the war the 107th became overwhelmed by enemy forces, trapped and facing certain defeat, HYDRA agents proceeded to capture Barnes and the few remaining survivors left in his company. The 107th were declared MIA and largely presumed dead. Col. Phillips was filling out letters of condolences, but not all believed that the 107th were dead and an elaborate rescue mission was hatched.
Barnes and Co were taken prisoner in a HYDRA Weapons Development facility in Austria where they were forced to build weapons for the enemy (or face brutal beatings and tortures). During his imprisonment, Barnes developed pneumonia and grew too ill to work. He was taken to an isolated infirmary ward where he was then subjected to various torturous HYDRA experiments at the hands of the psychotic Armin Zola. His fellow prisoners of war suspected he succumbed to his illness or died at the hands of HYDRA scientists, either way, they assumed he wouldn't leave the facility alive.
At some point during the experiments he was injected with various serums, trying to replicate the effects of the Super Soldier Serum used on Johann Schmidt and Stephanie Rogers (though Barnes was not injected with Erskines original formula as it was lost when Erskine was murdered). Barnes was badly wounded and gravely ill as a result of the experiments. The weakened soldier clung on for dear life until he and his fellow prisoners were liberated and taken back to the safety of one of the allies camps in Central Europe where Barnes made a steady (though unusually fast) recovery from his injuries.
Barnes joined Rogers for a final WW2 mission to stop HYDRA for good! .:Final Mission:.
On what would be their final mission together, Barnes and Rogers prepared to hijack a HYDRA train, capture Dr Armin Zola, and stop Red Skull before he could launch his attack. The two life-long friends set off to face their biggest enemy so far. Unfortunately this would be the last time the two would be together for over 70 years.
During the firefight which broke out on the train, Barnes was blasted by HYDRA agents and clung for his life to a piece of railing on the side of the train as the perilous cliff face of the Alps whizzed by for several hundred feet below. Despite her best efforts, Rodgers was unable to grab Barnes before the railing snapped free and he fell from the vehicle. Barnes was declared KIA and his body was never discovered.
Srgt James Barnes was the only Howling Commando operative to die in service of his country..:The Fall:.
Barnes' dead body was recovered from an icy river flowing through the mountains when he was discovered by Soviets. The icy water and Zola's experiments managed to maintain Barnes in a suspended status, his heart had stopped and his body was heavily damaged, but somehow he wasn't braindead. He was revived by the Soviets who administered electrical shocks and adrenalin to try and restart his heart while they stemmed the heavy bleeding from his severed left arm and attempted to preserve what they could of his broken body as he thawed.
What happened to Barnes next was a fate even worse than death. .:Barnes' Return to HYDRA:.
The Soviets handed Barnes over to HYDRA and once again he was subjected to Zola's gruelling experiments. Through careful procedures, HYDRA was able to wake Bucky from his comatose state and fully assess the extent of the damage to his brain. He was stricken with amnesia but aside from the total loss of memory his motor-functions were entirely normal, and to the doctors surprise, some functioned better than average, he had incredible muscle memory and displayed astonishing martial skill, he could also speak several languages but didn't know how he knew them.
Although his brain was alive, and his heart restarted, his body required extensive careful procedures to repair and further enhance, the most complex was his missing arm. His healing factor, enhanced by Zola, greatly aided his physical recovery, although his arm showed no signs of regrowth or significant repair. His severed arm was replaced with a bionic prosthetic that was grafted onto his body during several agonising live-procedures. Barnes was not anaesthetised for his operations.
His amnesia appeared to wane over time and some of his memories began to resurface, to counter this, HYDRA began a series of brainwashing and electroshock conditioning sessions to ensure his compliance and remove any and all memories of his old life. When he began to have episodes of non-compliance and recurring flashbacks, HYDRA opted to freeze him between missions and enforce strict brainwashing procedures as soon as he was wakened from cryo to ensure he remained entirely obedient.
Over the course of the decades that followed, HYDRA used The Winter Soldier to discretely neutralise assigned high-profile targets before storing him in cryogenic sleep until they needed him to perform a hit again. The Winter Soldier was so efficient and prolific at killing that he faded into myth, even the best intelligence agencies couldn't catch him and eventually he became known as a ghost, a myth, a fabled super-assassin with a growing list of successful hits spanning several decades.
He became the Winter Soldier. The worlds greatest assassin. The worlds longest serving prisoner of war. .:Serbia and the Wolf Spiders:.
When Howard Stark formulated a replica of the original Super Soldier Serum, HYDRA wanted it and the Winter Soldier was sent on a mission to procure the recently replicated Super Soldier Serum. Barnes successfully collected the Serum samples and returned to Serbia where he was wiped clean once again.
The Serum was used to create a group of Super Soldiers for HYDRA, these were the Wolf-Spiders. The Wolf-Spider Program was heavily inspired by Barnes' own modifications and training. Barnes was involved in training the Super Soldiers in combat. When the Spiders turned on their masters during a training exercise the program was quickly shut down and declared a failure. The Wolf Spiders were frozen in cryo-sleep.
Barnes was wiped clean and kept on ice till he was needed by HYDRA again..:Thaw:.
The Winter Soldier continued his cycle of waking, killing and freezing once again, with unwavering obedience due to the long-lasting effects of HYDRA's intense brainwashing regime. He remains under HYDRA control, however with a little persuasion (more specifically, a series of code words), the Winter Soldier can be brainwashed and coerced into serving any master. His proficiency in killing make him a valuable HYDRA asset and a formidable enemy to anyone who stands in his way.
The Soldier has recently been unfrozen and unleashed on the hunt for his next target. Enhanced Senses: Bucky has extremely keen hearing and eye-sight. Though not impossible, it is very difficult to catch TWS off guard or unawares. If he doesn't see you coming first, he probably hear you.
Enhanced Speed: Augmented Bucky can run up to (and perhaps upwards of) 50mph. His reaction time, like his movement speed, has also increased, meaning he can perceive and respond to movements or scenarios far faster than ordinary humans.
Enhanced Strength: The augmentations performed by Dr Armin Zola have vastly increased TWS's physical capabilities. His body has been pushed to peak physical condition, far surpassing that of even the fittest human athlete.
Bionic Arm: Barnes' left arm is a cybernetic prosthetic. The arm is largely immune to bullets and brute force and packs a mean punch. It can move faster than a regular human arm and employ far greater force than an organic arm.
Expert Marksman: The Winter Soldier is prolific in a large number of ranged weapons. He's lethal with a variety of guns and grenades.
Master Assassin: His long hit-list has no misses, he is an expert sniper. Although he is prolific in ranged weaponry, he is absolutely unbeatable when sniping from a distance. He is also able to employ a terrifying range of methods to dispatch targets, if it can be killed, he'll find a way to kill it.
Hand-to-Hand Combat: His enhanced physiology paired with his bionic arm and training result in an extremely adept fighter. He has ample experience. He also fights with a combat knife.
Healing Factor: As a result of Zola's experiments, Barnes has a generous healing factor, hence his ability to recover from Zola's tortures as well as being able to be revived after his fall from the train in the Alps. He cannot regenerate limbs, however he does heal quickly from injuries and is able to survive what would prove fatal for regular humans.
High Pain Tolerance: The Winter Soldier is in a constant state of low-level pain as the cyber-arm has some trade offs, it exerts some serious stress on his body but he has developed a pain tolerance to counter this side effect. As such, TWS will fight to the point that he cannot stand, ignoring great amounts of pain (e.g in CATWS, Cap breaks TWS's right arm but TWS continues to fight until the Triskellion's go down).
Pilot: TWS is able to hijack and pilot various types of aircraft and vehicles (cars, tanks, motorcycles etc).
His HYDRA handlers haven't been able to totally wipe out a Kleptomaniac streak they programmed into his brain, sometimes he steals cars and crashes them for fun. Espionage: He is a master of disappearing, master spy, he can vanish in a crowd and hide in plain sight. He didn't earn a reputation as a "ghost story" by not being good at vanishing and gathering intelligence on enemies for HYDRA.
Multilingual: Barnes is fluent in English, Russian and Romanian, he is also adept in a handful of other languages.
Bionic Arm flaws: The bionic arm is NOT indestructible, although it is very very resistant to most damage it contains
no vibranium. Tough, but not invulnerable. Electrical pulses can temporarily disable the arm. The Arm is also not as flexible as an organic arm, its inflexibility can be a handicap in some fights!! The bionic arm (in this particular incarnation of TWS) CANNOT be removed/pulled off, this would kill him, the arm is attached to too many other vital systems that it cannot be pulled off without yanking out too many other bones and tissues. Portions of the arm can be ripped out/blasted off, but the arm itself cannot be detached/removed
in its entirety from his body.
Electricity: Electrical shocks can mess around with the HYDRA brainwashing as well as his shiny-arm, causing memory flashbacks and confusion. As electroshock therapy was used to regulate his brainwashing, unregulated shocks can alter his brainwashing with unpredictable effects, sometimes the shocks have relatively little effect, other times they can be very debilitating and disorienting or induce flashbacks.
Amnesia: Barnes is an amnesiac and using his codewords can wipe him clean leaving him vulnerable to serve whoever says the words, thus, his code words and triggers are kept a deep dark secret. The process of wiping him clean is incredibly painful but ALWAYS results in total obedience.
FriendsStephanie Rogers - Childhood friend and All-American hero. They grew up together in Brooklyn before Barnes went to serve in the US military during WW2. The two share a long, happy history ... if only The Winter Soldier could remember any of it, and if he did, would Stephanie still consider him her friend? Is any of the old Bucky she once knew left?
AlliesCaptain America - Although the Winter Soldier is working for Cap's enemy, she's also Bucky's closest friend and if he's able to break his mental programming, he'll need her more than ever!
HYDRA - HYDRA created The Winter Soldier and as such, he is totally in their debt and under their control, or rather ... he doesn't have any free will, he is ...
compliant.
CODEHOLDER - Whoever holds his brainwashing codes holds the Soldier.
Enemies:Any HYDRA Assigned Targets; Possible targets,Nick Fury - Director of SHIELD, Super Spy. Possible threat to HYDRA schemes
(Poss) Iron Man - Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist (heh). SHIELD ally and possible threat to HYDRA schemes
Captain America - Former Friend, American war hero and threat to HYDRA.
(later) Wolf-Spiders - HYDRA experimental SuperSoldiers, trained to be equal/superior to The Winter Soldier. Some (if not all) Spider's hold a bit of a grudge against their predecessor and wouldn't hesitate to rip out his arm.
Bucky's Enemies; HYDRA. - His creators.
The Wolf Spiders. - Soviet Super Soldiers gone rogue.
Possibly SHIELD/SHIELD's allies - if they attempt to capture him.
.:Remembering Bucky:. After being out of the freezer longer than usual, the Winter Soldier's memories begin to return and he goes rogue during his mission and begins a personal quest of self-discovery (and possibly revenge).
.:Trial:. Bucky breaks his programming and remembers things. Living on the run from the authorities and from HYDRA, Bucky tries to evade SHIELD capture and also tries to evade HYDRA recapture, for fear he'll be indoctrinated once again. Bucky, if captured, will have to face punishment for his actions OR a return to his life of assassinating indiscriminately under HYDRAs control but just how much does he actually remember and how much does SHIELD know about him? and who will catch him first?
.:Ready to Comply:. Bucky is totally under control ... however, someone steals Bucky's "code words" and steals the master assassin for his/her/their own ulterior motives.
Note:
(Depending on who steals the Soldier, he could be good or evil. He will begin the RP in renegade/HYDRA mode until another character steals him. PC's can steal the Soldier, but please PM/discuss and get the "okay" from GM's FIRST!!!!).:End of Winter:. Bucky wasn't the only Winter Soldier created by HYDRA ... the supposedly "decommissioned" Wolf Spider operation which followed the Winter Soldier Programme was not as unsuccessful as HYDRA led others to believe. Unlike Barnes, the Wolf Spiders were not obedient and were frozen to prevent them destroying their creators and the world alike, however some of the Wolf Spiders have somehow escaped/been released. HYDRA has sent Bucky on a mission to assassinate his would-be spy-brothers before SHIELD or anyone else can take advantage of HYDRA's grave mistake.
.:Reunion:. The Winter soldier is sent on a mission to eliminate a dangerous threat to HYDRA. Captain America who just so happened to be his best childhood friend.
If Stephanie can manage to knock the HYDRA brainwashing out of Bucky's head ... just what will happen next? Can Rogers forgive Bucky for his past transgressions? Can Bucky forgive himself? And just where do they go from here?
.:Homecoming:. Bucky somehow escapes from HYDRA and seeks a cure for his mental conditioning, some way to pull HYDRA out of his brain and rehabilitate himself. But who will trust the worlds deadliest assassin to
not kill them in a moments notice? And who would offer to help said assassin?
Can Bucky even
be cured? What will he do if he is cured? Will he try take down HYDRA, or go into hiding? Will he be captured during his rehabilitation and if so, by whom?
Sample: No one could say Bucky Barnes
wasn't a gentleman ... at least half of the time anyway. The roguish young New Yorker held back his best friends hair and sympathetically patted her back while she chucked up her lunch after he'd convinced her to brave the Cyclone roller-coaster on Coney Island.
"You alright pal?" he asked, as Stephanie straightened up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, looking a little less green now, thankfully.
"Oh I'll get you for that, punk" she declared, as spirited as ever.
Bucky beamed and threw an arm over her shoulder.
"Sure ya will, but first, lemme get ya a hotdog. You pick the next ride.""Do we even have enough money for hotdogs?" Stephanie scoffed,
"How much money did you blow on those stall games anyway?" she rolled her eyes,
"You need to work on your aim if you want to try pick up girls at the fair.""Steph, you might just be the worst wingman in history" Bucky joked.
"And you might just be the worst shot in history."-
Gone.That memory was gone. It had been gone for over 50 years already. If it ever bubbled back to the surface, as unlikely as that was, it would be wiped away in a single swift stroke. All it took was ten rather harmless words, at least, they appeared harmless until they were spoken in a specific order in quick succession.
He was waking up- No ... Not that, he was
thawing, and he was in a chair, manacles holding his arms in place and a HYDRA handler was talking to him, ensuring he was compliant when he came around from being thawed out of cryogenic stasis.
The HYDRA scientists had files heavily detailing his augmentations, his history, every single mission report. The psych portion of his file was particularly messy, particularly around the 1940's and through the 1950's. That was before they started putting him on ice and engineering a failsafe switch to try and prevent the Soldier escaping, or realising who he had once been. After 3 years of non-stop service for HYDRA, shadows of Bucky crept in. He began to ask questions when he gave his mission reports and that scared the scientists. The Winter Soldier's brain was trying to heal itself, to remember who he was, piecing things together that he shouldn't know, having thoughts he wasn't allowed to think about. The only solution was to force those questions and memories away, bury them deeper. The Winter Soldiers HYDRA leash was shorter and tighter, he was muzzled, questions silenced and his brain wiped over and over before he was stuffed in the freezer again. Then defrosted again several months or even years later.
"Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight Car"Halfway through the brainwashing mantra, pain lanced through Barnes' skull, he screamed at the searing heat in his head and then it was over.
"Soldat?""Ready to comply.""You have 36 hours. Find and neutralise target."The Winter Soldier didn't nod. Didn't reply. There was no need for him to portray emotion or voice confirmation, his track record spoke volumes whereas he was steeped in silence. When HYDRA gave the command, someone wound up dead and the cycle continued.
Within 36 hours a famous Norwegian physicist was dead. Single gun-shot wound, unmarked Soviet slug lodged in the brain. There were no witnesses. No viable suspects and Barnes was back in Serbia before anyone had even noticed his presence in Norway. Like many missions, it went off without any hitches.
"Mission Report.""Target neutralised. No witnesses.""We are one step closer, Soldat."Another line was added to his in-exhaustive list of hits and mission reports. The Soldier was put on ice again as the Norwegian public, and later, the UN as the physicists death drew a great deal of backlash, were outraged and dismayed.
---
"It is time again, Soldat" the scientist started before slamming his fist down on the table.
The icicles in his hair hadn't even melted and already his thoughts were searing with blind-heat.
"Longing-" "No-" The Winter Soldier's thoughts screamed, but he remained silent as ever. Weapons didn't speak. He was a weapon. HYDRA's greatest weapon.
"Rusted" "Seventeen-"A scream ripped through The Winter Soldiers throat as an electrical shock pulsed through him. He felt memories he hadn't even remembered being ripped asunder. Mentally scrambling through the darkness, the glittering fragments of what Bucky had been winked out of existence before they even dared to peek out of the deepest darkest recesses of his brain. There was nothing left to erase.
"... -coming. One. Freight car."He gasped for breath, the searing lance of pain through his brain had vanished but residual shocks rattled inside his skull. His muscles, which had coiled tight as a highly compressed spring, reluctantly eased to a more relaxed state, the reaction to the shocks subsiding slightly.
"Soldat."Silence.
"Soldat. Answer me."More silence.
A sharp blow struck him across the face, slowly, he drew his head back up from the backhand slap he'd sustained.
"Ready to comply." 
