[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]

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."

[nerves_of_ice]

Stark growls. "Bet I can. That'll give them time to come down the other ways without being targets."

Natasha sighs and mimes throwing something at him. "Behave, Tony."

[from_the_outside]

"If the Soldiers break loose, we'll need all hands on deck fast," she reminds Stark. "But you have a point. Nat, you split off and make your own approach. You can clear us a secondary exit in case we get penned in, and collect whatever intel you can on the way. Barton will go with Stark."

[nerves_of_ice]

"If it goes wrong and it's anything like last time, they're distractible through violence. I'll draw them off for as long as I can."

He says it matter-of-factly. It's the best option; he's the one most likely to be able to hold them off long enough to have any real chance of survival.

[from_the_outside]

"That's plan Z," Sharon tells him, as Barton gives him an arched-eyebrows look and goes back to sorting through his arrows, sliding them one by one into the quiver. "If we have to distract them, let's try doing it with something else."

[nerves_of_ice]

He gives a half-shrug. "Best case is not to have to. But if it comes to it, that's an option."

Reluctance spirals through him, as it'll reveal some of his own weaknesses, but if it helps keep the others alive and unhurt it's necessary.

"Concussive force can distract. Electroshock'll hurt, a lot. Cattle prods, tasers, the equivalent."

[from_the_outside]

Nat is very carefully showing no expression through this litany, but she notices Clint removing a few of the arrows from his quiver and replacing them with new ones.

"Concussive force I can do," Tony says. "Electroshock too, if a few other things are in place."

"Good," Sharon says. "And, Tony, you may be on the hook for getting Bucky out." With that arm, he's too heavy for any of the rest of them to carry.

[nerves_of_ice]

He starts to tell them to leave him behind if they need to and swallows it before the words can make it past his lips. They won't; Sharon won't, anyway.

"I climb fast," is all he says, and slides the last pistol into place between his shoulders.

[from_the_outside]

She exchanges a glance with Nat, then gets up and opens a mirror in one of the lockers, touching up Irma's perfect red lipstick and wiping away a smudge of eyeliner beneath one eye. "Okay," she says, closing the locker door and wishing she were able to arm herself better.

She reaches for the warm coat she'll be wearing and nods to Coulson to get himself ready, too, as Nat goes to set the Quinjet down. "Everybody know what they're doing? Time to go."