Would this include the whole rewind time/fuck with the future/butterfly effect thing or just the setting/school life? The butterfly effect stuff could be hard to control particularly in a large group but a highschool/college/academy thing is usually simple in and of itself.
I guess we'd see if/when he encounters the Winter Soldier. To some, they'd think being turned into a tool for the enemy would be revenge enough, but perhaps it isn't enough for Zemo or Zemo wants to inflict damage himself. We'll see if it comes up IC but its certainly a head scratcher lol
The one thing that kept Zemo going was his hatred of Captain America and her allies. And he swore that he would take vengeance for the death of his father and mother. At first, he thought his opportunity was lost when Captain America seemed to have mysteriously disappeared in combat. But once she resurfaced in the 21st century, Zemo knew it was his time to avenger his parents.
First of all, LOOOOOOVED Zemo's CS (and I love him as a character in General, the wee divil!) but question ...
Cap - Definite Enemy Srgt Barnes - Definite Enemy Winter Soldier - ... Body of enemy but ... brainwashed by HYDRA ... is he friend or foe? x'D Just curious for your thoughts Ded
Name: Liselotte "Letty" Lindström Age: 23 (3 minutes younger than Leo) Gender: F Class: Greaser Occupation: Jill of All Trades Personality: Reckless ... When the world goes to heck, who needs self preservation skills anyway? Letty doesn't do forward- planning, she lives in the "NOW". Stubborn as heck, he has a genius level intellect, is competitive and determined. She's a tough chick as well and hates being a "pussy", and if she catches you "cryin' like a pussy", expect to get called out on it because she will! Shes not all bite-and-no-bark though, beneath the rough edges, theres a shy, nerdy girl who has her doubts, her regrets, her fears, she'll just not open up that easily.
Background: Letty and her twin brother were born in Norway and moved to the States when they were 17. Her family lived in a rural part of Norway and although a city was within driving distance, their parents were a bit edgy and wanted to be self-sufficient, living off the grid, growing their own crops, using geothermal energy to heat their home, they did have electricity and can-you-believe-it, WIFI, but the family lived pretty close to nature. Letty used to help her mother maintain the garden and cook while her brother and father went to hunt wild deer and game ... but Letty was a rough and tumble girl and insisted she go hunting too ... turns out she's a better shot than her brother. Soon, she spent all her time out hunting, she was a good shot and could skin a deer with terrifying proficiency. She quickly took her brothers place on all of the hunts, and he began only joining Letty and her father occasionally, instead he helped out at home and dedicated his time to studying. When she was 13, disaster struck. Out hunting with Leo, their father was in town purchasing parts to repair the backup generator during a particularly harsh winter, Letty was attacked by one of the few wild wolves in Norway, suffering severe damage to her left arm before Leo managed to pull the creature off her and kill it. Despite their mothers best efforts to keep the wound clean until their father could return and drive her to the nearest mainroad where she could get an ambulance to get to a hospital, it was too late to save all of her arm. She lost her arm from the elbow down, but despite having to get her arm amputated, she remained upbeat and determined. Once she came around from surgery, her first words to her worried brother were. "I'm gonna have to learn to shoot with one hand now".
Leo excelled in science, while Letty was athletic. He promised he'd find a way to fix her arm and so the twins began researching the kinds of advances in prosthetic technology while she underwent rehabilitation after the accident. Eventually, she was fitted with fiberglass prosthetic.
She learned to shoot using one arm and also using the prosthetic with special attachments to help hold the gun steady, while she couldn't hunt, she tinkered with technology, taking apart cars and machines and gadgets and putting them back together. She even experimented making small-scale bombs, though her parents discouraged this behaviour once they discovered it.
Letty and Leo's mother passed away from pneumonia during a particularly harsh winter and the twins moved with their father to the States for a fresh start. They lived a simple life in a trailer, unable to afford much more than the trailer and patch of dirt they rented. He worked several dead-end jobs to keep a roof over their head. They went to school for the first time, after growing up homeschooled in Norway, and the twins excelled in their own ways. Letty was sociable and athletic and joined several sports teams, Judo was one of her favourites. Despite her disability, she was able to adapt and fight well with just one arm. Leo was interested in science and signed up for lots of advanced classes, eventually getting to work on a cybernetic prosthetic project he developed to help his sister. Leo earned a scholarship to university where he finished working on Letty's prosthetic. Letty earned a sports scholarship but turned it down in favour of working to help Leo and her father, with her new arm, she was much more productive.
Leo's studies took him across the country to South Carolina, Letty went with him and then ... It happened. THey never heard from their father again. Leo was quickly appointed to a Medic and Engineer role by the Govvies they joined up with and rose through the ranks, Letty got general engineering and maintenance jobs, and the pair, with their hunting experience, went on patrols together to kill Lurkers.
Despite the apocalypse, the twins stuck together adn thigns generally went well, all things considered. Until... A Lurker hunt went wrong. People were trapped in an abandoned building, the Govvies were called back, let the people perish, protect your own ... Leo pulled her back to the compound and their relationship became permanently fractured by their differing opinions. Letty disagreed with the order to abandon those people, Leo played by the rules ... The building was torched to the ground, killing civvies and lurkers indiscriminately.
After a few months Letty grew increasingly upset and ran away to join the first group of Greasers who didn't mind her sticking around. She proved to be a valuable asset, with expertise in weapons, scavenging, hunting and survival. She fit right in, they didn't mind she was an ex-govvy because she talked so much shit about Govvies ... deep down, she bore resentment for her brother for being so cowardly and self-preserving that he let all those people die, but the other half of her missed him terribly. She never mentioned family when she joined the Greasers and they simply don't ask.
She hopes that maybe theres still hope for Leo, maybe she'll run into him on a hunt and he'll see the light and join her.
Goal: "Blow 'em all to Hell!" Equipment: Sniper Rifle (She calls him Noodle), Sawn-off Shotgun (Boom), a pistol (Trixie), and a combat knife (Lisa). Skills: Hunting, Scavenging, Gardening, Marksmanship, Hand-to-hand combat, engineering. Miscellaneous: Identifying Marks: Cybernetic arm
Family: Leo - Twin Brother [alive] Father - [unknown] Mother - [deceased]
Appearance:
Name: Leo Lindström Age: 23 (3 minutes older than Letty) Gender: Male Class: Govvy Occupation: Medic/Engineer Personality: Stoic, law abiding, quiet and serious. He's Letty's polar opposite but extremely protective of her. Background: Same as Letty, except he liked science instead of sports, he was more introverted. Goal: Engineer a cure for the outbreak or find a way to develop immunity ... bring the world back from the brink and find his sister out there somewhere. Equipment: Most of his equipment is in one of the medical/science facilities, on excursions he carries a pistol sidearm, a semi-automatic rifle, swiss army knife and emergency first aid pack. Skills: First aid/medicine, science/engineering, firearms. Miscellaneous: Identifying Marks: Family: Letty and father (missing presumed dead)
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.
Powers and Abilities:
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.
Weaknesses
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.
Supporting Cast:
Friends
Stephanie 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?
Allies
Captain 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.
Sample Story Arcs:
-spoilered because lots of cool Bucky gifs-
.: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.
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.
The Asset was prepped. The same routine as always. Remove from cryo, conduct brainwashing procedures, assign target and brief him with the mission. Karpov was seething. Red Skull dared to admonish him, to talk down on him and make him rescind a command... It left a bitter taste in Karpov's mouth, humiliated because that damned American foiled his attempt on some worthless reporters life. Red Skull wanted to make a statement, wanted HYDRA to unleash mass terror upon the people and it had all turned to shit. Red Skulls solution was to stay his hand, to let Captain America swoop in and play the hero then swoop out unscathed. Maybe Red Skull could see the bigger picture in the end, but Karpov didn't take defeat lightly and intended to make up for this mistake.
The bruises and welts beneath the Winter Soldier's combat gear were still fresh from Karpov's relentless beating. His scarred skin was mottled black and blue and angry shades of red and purple, but he didn't complain, he didn't voice his obvious discomfort, then again, if he ever did, when would he stop? His whole body was wracked with pain, the brainwashing, cryo and cybernetic arm were the primary causes for his grievances, but Assets didn't speak, they certainly didn't complain.
<<"Your target is Haines, a reporter. I want her alive, use any means necessary but keep her alive, kill anyone who tries to stop you. Do not fail me this time, do you understand Soldat?">> There was no response, which was as good as a confirmation. <<"Go. You have two hours. Bring Haines back here alive, make sure you aren't followed">>
New York City,
Roughly 2 a.m. Local Time
The Winter Soldier melted into the darkness of the late night streets. Sticking to back alleys and shadowy streets. He avoided being out in the open, there was too much CCTV, too many potential witnesses. In this day and age, it was impossible not to be seen, but at the very least, keeping a low profile, keeping your head down, made it significantly harder to be identified and followed.
Haines was terrified since her near-assassination and had prepped herself as best she could, lest her attacker returned. The doors were locked, bolted and locked again with a series of locks upon more locks. She answered the door to no one, wouldn't allow anyone in unless they phone called first and explained who they were and why they wanted to be there... Perhaps she was a tad paranoid, but she didn't give a damn, she knew HYDRA were seriously dangerous. If it wasn't for Stephanie Rogers conveniently being at the right place at the right time, Haines knew she'd be a corpse in the morgue right now.
The Winter Soldier was smarter than the average cat burglar, he wasn't going to use the front door, any idiot would know the door would be heavily bolted shut and to open it, he'd make a racket, or, if he were to pick the locks, it would take too much time. Even apartments had backdoors, though they usually consisted of emergency fire-escapes or windows. Fortunately for Karpov, The Winter Soldier wasn't exactly fussy when it came to breaking an entering. Unfortunately for Haines, it meant she'd set herself a trap. With a heavily bolted door, she'd fenced herself in, no chance of escaping down the halls and crying for help, she'd locked herself in.
The Winter Soldier scaled the fire-escape stairwell, shrouded in the shadows of the building, at best, the CCTV across the street might have caught a sliver of a figure scaling the stairwell, not much to go on all things considered, it certainly wouldn't be possible to ID him from that footage alone. He stopped at the window to Haines' kitchen. The lights were off, he assumed she was asleep in bed, it only made things easier. The windows were bolted shut of course, but a quick peek in revealed that, as he'd suspected, the door was laden with heavy bolts. He could make some noise breaking the window to climb in, even if Haines woke, she had nowhere to run.
He didn't even flinch, left arm punching through the double-glazing with ease. He hopped over the shattered remains of the window and landed with ease in the darkened kitchen, eyes narrowing and adjusting to the reduced visibility. Haines heard a disturbance and switched on her bedside lamp, scrambling in her bedside drawer to get a handgun she'd purchased to defend herself.
It was too late. It was too dark. He was in the room before she could even process what was happening. "Stop I'll shoo-" she threatened in a strangled whisper, too scared to shout. Terror gripped her body.
A hand gripped around her throat, a cold, inhumanly-cold hand knocked the gun from her hands. She flailed, tangling herself in her nightdress rather than escaping the intruders grasp. Her hands scrambled up to the lone hand wrapped sturdily around her throat, clawing to no avail, the grip didn't slacken. She was aware she wasn't getting enough air, a whimper barely escaped her before she began to feel dizzy, her vision blurring, she stared at the intruders face, half covered by a black mask, but the eyes ... they burned into her memory before she went limp and passed out.
The Winter Soldier threw the unconscious body over his shoulder, unaccustomed to taking prisoners, he was more used to taking lives, he had no choice but to skulk down the hall with her, moving quickly, keep his head down. He didn't dare take the front entrance, instead he escaped through the maintenance area, hopping over huge dumpsters into the parking lot on the opposite side of the wall.
He tore open the door of a blue sedan and put Haines in the back, taking a moment to tape her mouth and her hands and legs with duct tape before he slid into the drivers seat in the front and hotwired the car, disappearing into the night, driving around the city to try lose any potential tails. He stopped on the outskirts of the city, handing Haines over to a van of Hydra goon who had been waiting for him, they loaded her into the back of the van and unloaded a motorcycle. The Winter Soldier took the motorbike one direction, the Hydra-van circled in another direction.
An hour later The Winter Soldier returned to Karpov and confirmed the mission had been a success. Haines was stored in a facility on the other side of the city, groggy, but alive. The Winter Soldier awaited his next command. Haines was alive, but captured.
Captain America had met the Winter Soldier face to face and stopped his attempt on Haines' life ... now the Winter Soldier had Haines, and Karpov intended to make his revenge personal. Captain America would forever regret foiling Karpov's assassination attempt on live TV, she'd watch the man she let get away execute the target himself, and there was nothing she could do about it. Karpov decided he'd make sure Haines suffered first. Captain America saved her from a quick headshot, only to find her in a much more perilous situation. Assets didn't feel pain or guilt, but Karpov knew that Stephanie Rogers did...
<<"Soldat. I will need you to contact our friend, the American. This is a particularly important mission, you will answer to no one else until you complete this, not even Red Skull. Do you understand?">> The Winter Soldier remained silent, of course he understood. <<"Go to Haines, the reporter. Take a photo and deliver it to the American. A simple threat, a warning. Do not engage if you encounter the American ... ">>
Haines wasn't having a good day ... that was an understatement. Although her captors hadn't roughed her up, her hands were bound, legs bound and her mouth taped. She was still wearing the same dressing gown they'd kidnapped her in and her neck was purpling with bruises. Her head ached, she must have bumped it while she was out-cold but ... they hadn't inflicted any tortures on her ... yet. She assumed she hadn't been out for too long, she hadn't gone too far, her captors spoke in English with distinct American accents ... though they kept mentioning "the Russian" and a characters called "The Soldier", sometimes they called him "The Asset". Haines' reporting skills kicked in, she filed away every piece of info she could gather and tried to think of how it might help save her life later. Captain America couldn't protect her down here, she though miserably, but if they hadn't killed her yet ... maybe these idiots thought seh knew something important. She had no idea she was nothing more than a piece of bait in a revenge plot ... But thinking she might be able to save herself, thinking they thought she wasn't easily discarded, gave her hope to try figure a way out of this. Tony Stark got out of tougher jams than this ... and beneath that armour hes an arrogant but regular human being ... she assured herself.
"Karpov sent his little lapdog, apparently he wants to stick up the middle finger to Captain America. He warned us not to mention anything about her though, after some event in the 70's apparently they get a little jumpy whenever the Soldier's in America" The other Hydra agent gave his pal an incredulous look. "Thats weird ... I heard he's been in the field since the 50's ... must have hundreds to kills by now ..." the goon began laughing and done a lousy impression of Karpov's thick Russian accent, "Maybe Mother Russia isn't so glorious and Karpov's scared the Soldier can 'smell the freedom' or whatever garbage he's scared of" "Beats me ... I don't care that Karpov's playing house with Red Skull ... I wouldn't cross him while he has the Soldier under his control ... Scares the heck outta me ... No wonder that bitch pissed herself when he broke in" the goons dissolved into laughter and Haines' felt her cheeks burn, though pissing herself when a 90-year-old super-assassin choked her out was hardly a reason to be embarrassed... Anyone else would do the same.
Her worst fears were confirmed when a familiar figure appeared. Silent as he had been the first time he'd crossed paths with her. Eerily still and cold, she wondered for a moment if he was robotic ... his arm was at least, but maybe all of him ... Yet ... despite the cold distant, detached gaze, he seemed human ... minus the humanity. She had a name to pin to her abductors face.
"The Winter Soldier", he has a metal arm with a red star, cold, dead eyes ... he wears a black mask and never speaks. The Soldier didn't utter a word as he pulled Haines up on her knees, she knelt infront of him, arms tied behind her back, tears streaking down her face, head pulled back and up by the hair in a cold metal hand, a Russian combat knife pressed to her throat with the other hand, she managed to catch a glimpse of the blade before it was thrust against her neck- There was a serial code ... she wasn't sure if it would be any help, but filed away information for later. It was a KGB issue knife, cleaned and sharpened, if it wasn't regularly maintained it would be rusted away from dozens of uses. Bizarrely, he didn't kill her, the HYDRA goons snapped a picture, catching Haines in all her glory ... filthy and kneeling on a dirty floor with tears on her cheeks, her captor was cut off from the shoulders up, but the metal arm was in the picture. Captain America would be able to remember that much at least.
Then he left. Haines slumped down to the floor and he vanished into the night.
Captain America's apartment wasn't hard to find, it wasn't under super high-tech security, heck, she was a super soldier, if someone broke in, they would need protection, not her. But she wasn't there. Breaking in and planting the photo, and a lock of Haines' hair hastily hacked off, was easy and the Winter Soldier vanished without even being seen.
Awesome! I like having Black Widow around :D Would certainly be interesting to see what would happen if Bucky remembered Natasha first (Cap would be heartbroken!!!), his memories with Natasha would be more recent than Steph, but still (Cap and Bucky are together till the end of the line!!!) Its a cool clash of worlds for him, Cap was his world Pre-HYDRA, and Natasha is from his life when he was indoctrinated, so its a weird combo but I LOVE IT!!
Okay after I finish my assingments I'm sure I can handle a second char!!!!
Would it be okay for me to take on a Govvie too? (Maybe he's my Greaser-chars twin brother, except he didn't defect and become a greaser like she did, so if/when they cross paths it would be very intense - on the one hand they are siblings, twins, they would care deeply for one another or have cared for one another at a point, BUTTTT they are both in two radically different positions with radically differing views).
*remembers to click subscribe button to get updates*
My claim to fame is starting the "dicks in clocks" discussion on the status bar ... and shitposting in general.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">My claim to fame is starting the "dicks in clocks" discussion on the status bar ... and shitposting in general.</div>
