[Ohio AU] the heart of winter

[nerves_of_ice]

Coulson had been called away on something for Fury before they'd gotten more than halfway to wherever his locker is and the set of trading cards stored within it. Without anything else to do, Bucky makes his way back to the quarters he's been given. It's either that or explore the rest of the helicarrier on his own, and that seems like something that can wait safely enough.

He swings by the mess on the way back. As he'd suspected, it's not placed too far distant from what serves as a commissary on this boat. He requisitions a couple of notebooks, a couple of pencils and pens and takes it all with him.

Might as well start with a report on the other Soldiers, he decides. That's likely to be more important in the immediate future than anything else.

Comments

[from_the_outside]

She kisses him back and nods. "I'll be right here," she promises. Safe, probably. But who knows who might have managed to sneak aboard in the chaos? Has Nick really vetted everyone?

Sharon gives him a small smile and lets go. "See you soon."

[nerves_of_ice]

Soon is relative, it turns out. He and Natasha have a lot to talk about, given everything, but he feels okay about where they leave things.

Still, he makes it back to Sharon as he'd said he would, with plenty of time for the two of them to spend together before dawn lights the sky, bringing the onset of the mission with it.

Bucky stays quiet during most of the briefing, sliding into mission mode without even needing to think about it. He watches the others, thinking about what he'd already known or observed and comparing that to what he'd learned from Sharon and from Natasha as well.

Barton's skilled, apparently. He's curious to see him work, when the time comes.

Eventually all the prep work is done and they're on their way to Siberia, going in along the course he'd plotted for them, as close to under the radar as it gets.

[from_the_outside]

One nice thing about taking the Quinjet is that it's stocked to hell and back with everything they might need, up to and including the good painkillers. An hour or so before landing, Sharon heads to the little medical bay and searches out a syringe of something stronger than the pills the doctor had given her, injecting it into the muscle of her thigh. Looking up, she catches Natasha rummaging through a locker nearby, one slim eyebrow arched up toward her hairline.

"Don't give me that look," Sharon tells her, amused. "Like you haven't done the same damn thing."

"What look?" Nat counters, and sidles off as Sharon rearranges her clothing. Annoyingly, since she's appearing as Irma, she's not able to gear up quite as much as the others, either with body armor or weapons. But she'll find a way to make do.

[nerves_of_ice]

He's not sure if Tony Stark's even capable of being still for more than a minute or so at a time. The other man sure hasn't shown any signs of it, pacing back and forth across the aircraft, throwing himself into a seat and getting right back up again. Bucky checks the knives he'd borrowed from the weapons stash, watching as Stark drums his fingers against a nearby bulkhead.

"You're sure you don't want me to come in with the first group? You might need more oomph than you've got," Stark presses. Coulson, who's trying to pretend he's napping in his chair, lets out a small sigh. "Mr. Stark. We've been over this."

"If anything goes wrong, we'll need you then more than anything else," Bucky cuts in. Stark looks at him. "Yeah, but are you sure you'll be able to signal?"

"If it comes to that, you won't be able to miss it."

[from_the_outside]

"Bucky's the one who knows the lay of the land," Sharon says as she comes back in and grabs a bottle of water, cracking it open with a twist of her wrist. "That makes this his call."

Actually, it's her call, seeing as she's the one Fury put in charge of the mission, but there's no need to throw her weight around just yet. Though, speaking of...

She glances over at Coulson as she settles into a seat and lifts the water for a sip. "Didn't you have a run-in with somebody with a little more 'oomph' lately, yourself?"

[nerves_of_ice]

The loud, dramatic groan doesn't come from Coulson, but from Barton, seated beside Natasha further back. "Did we ever."

Coulson just nods. "He's not available now, I'm afraid. Hard to get a call through."

Bucky raises his eyebrows at this and waits.

[from_the_outside]

"Technically, it's so classified even I'm not supposed to know about it," Sharon tells him, in response to that look. "Hell, I don't know if I even actually believe it. He can't really have been a god, right?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Depends on which pantheon you believe in and how you want to look at it," Coulson says, mild. "But according to Norse myth and legend, yes."

Bucky can't stop the low annoyed sound that rumbles deep in his chest, but he manages to bite it back before anything spills out.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon laughs, putting the cap back on her bottle of water and massaging the spot on her thigh where she'd inserted the needle. This stuff works fast, thankfully.

"Not impressed, huh? Not even by the god of thunder?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Not by Norse myths. They cause too much trouble," Bucky informs her.

[from_the_outside]

"This one definitely did," Clint grumbles, as Nat gives him an amused, indulgent glance and shakes her head.

Sharon smiles, then looks over at the tracking display. "Forty minutes to landing," she says. "Everybody go do whatever you need to do to get ready."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky finishes checking his loaned knives and stashes them everywhere he can, then shifts to checking guns. Since he'd borrowed them from Natasha's stock it's probably not needed, but old habits are hard to break.

"Anything we need to review?" Coulson asks Sharon.

[from_the_outside]

"Just remember, you're the buyer," she tells him. "And we're here on Karpov's recommendation."

She nods to Bucky. "And Bucky will be acting as though you're his Command."

[nerves_of_ice]

Bucky nods to him.

He'd already been inclined to think well of Coulson based on every interaction so far, but the faint distaste and unease that flickers in his eyes raises the man further in his estimation.

"Protection's built into the program when it comes to Command," he says, trying to reassure. "You won't have to give any orders about that. Just remember that whatever you tell me to do, no matter what it is, I'll do everything I can to carry it out."

[from_the_outside]

"Noted," Coulson says, in a way that makes Sharon think he doesn't plan on giving Bucky any orders at all if he can manage without. She catches the glance Clint slants Nat's way, and can almost hear Tony's teeth grinding from here, but they can't address it right now. There's nothing they can do about the programming in the next half hour.

"All eyes are going to be on you," she tells Coulson, instead. "With any luck, they'll barely notice me, and they should be used to the Winter Soldier. So you're the one who's going to be getting us deeper into the facility."

[nerves_of_ice]

"It'll be a bad idea to ask them to unfreeze more than one operative at a time," he murmurs. "Even if they offer. If they're smart they won't, but..."

He shrugs. "We'll figure it out."

[from_the_outside]

"Do you think any of the Soldiers can think cohesively enough to unfreeze the others?" she asks him, thinking through what she can.

"Would they be able to assess the situation well enough the determine whether they needed backup?"

[nerves_of_ice]

He takes a few moments to consider that. "Hard to say."

Bucky looks up at her, then around at the others, including them all as he continues. "You need to understand. When the test - the violence of the test fight did something with the changes in them. They lost control, completely. They lost interest in anything but slaughter. No one survived in that room but Karpov, and that's only because I got him out."

He pauses there to let it sink in. "Either they come out of cryo calmer and stay that way, or they come out calm and regress over time, or they come out wild. The fact that they were never activated since makes me think it's one of the last two."

[from_the_outside]

"That's what it sounded like to me, too," Sharon agrees. "But on the off chance whichever one gets defrosted wakes up with some critical thinking skills, we'll need to be ready for it."

She looks over at Bucky, frowning slightly. "What is your signal for Tony and the others?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"If things go wrong? Slam the control to open the silo. Follow it with a rocket if I can, but the silo opening's hard to miss," Bucky tells them.

He considers, then clarifies, "Small rocket. I didn't find a launcher here, so it'll depend on what's available."

[from_the_outside]

Her frown furrows a little further before she shakes her head. "If you wanted a rocket launcher, you should have told me before we left the helicarrier. I could have requisitioned one."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Sorry. I'll remember next time."

"You won't have to. I'll make you a whole kit," Tony informs him.

[from_the_outside]

He probably will, at that. She shakes her head and presses on. "What if we aren't anywhere near the button for the silo opening?"

[nerves_of_ice]

"Unlikely. The chambers are all set around the bottom of the silo." Bucky draws with a finger on the nearest wall so everyone can see.

"Hallway entrance, control chamber over here to the side, cryo chambers here, here, here--" He marks off several places, then taps the center.

"--chair and crown apparatus here, and silo controls set in the wall here."

[from_the_outside]

It's still possible, especially if she and Coulson get caught against the opposite wall and Bucky has to chose between hitting the button and protecting them.

She doesn't bring it up. If he hasn't already considered it, then they'll make that call in the moment. "Fine."

Sharon looks over at Tony, pacing off to the side. "Remember you'll be bringing in Agents Romanoff and Barton, Stark. You can't just burn in like a missile."