One By One
At first Bucky Barnes saw this rumor as nonsense. That was, until his nightmares returned before a mission. In his nightly terrors he saw his former self facing off against a significantly smaller masked person as they were watched by his handlers and HYDRA scientists. In every dream he thought to himself that this fight would be easy until the person began to phase during their fight. They fought for what seemed like forever until the person seemingly gave up. Using this opportune moment, he utilized his metal arm to throw the person into a wall and begin to strangle them. He was then called off and he let the person fall to the ground, gasping for breath. He began to be walked off by his handlers to return to his cell before he looked back. The mask had been removed to reveal an adolescent girl with blood streaming from her nose that mixed tears that had fallen on her cheeks. Her jaw was held by one of the scientists as he berated her in Russian. Bucky had turned his head to look away as he heard a slap and a cry. When he looked back again, the little girl looked at the ground with empty eyes and marched in the opposite direction.
Bucky was always hyper aware before a mission. It was a quality that had been drilled into him during his days at HYDRA. Today, however, things were different. He wasn’t sure why his mind kept drifting back to that nightmare and that little girl. He wondered what had happened to her after HYDRA collapsed. He wondered why he hadn’t remembered it until now. Most of all, he’d wondered if she had survived. Where would she be now? Would she be like him? Helping SHIELD? Or would she have given up the fighting and tried to find some semblance of a normal life? Was she even alive?
“You alright, Buck?” He heard Sam’s voice ask. He stood above him, offering him a hand to stand up.
“I’m fine,” Bucky replied, taking his hand and standing up.
The two men donned suits for this mission. Bucky in all black while Sam wore a maroon suit jacket with a black tie and a white dress shirt. Torres and Walker waited outside in the hall. Sam led Bucky into the hall where Torres was adjusting his dark green suit jacket. Walker just stood there with his arms crossed before acknowledging the two men’s entrance.
“Good to see you two decided to show up,” Walker said in a poor attempt to sound humorous.
“Just gettin’ ready. Big mission and all,” Sam replied, hitting Bucky lightly in the shoulder.
Torres finally seemed to adjust to the suit jacket and looked their way, “Remind me why we’re wearing these?”
“We gotta look like patrons otherwise the people we’re looking for are gonna realize that we’re going after them. And we don’t wanna start a fight with these guys according to Fury,” Sam recalled with a shrug.
The mission was simple. Find the trio hiding in the casino, get them to go peacefully and escort them back to a SHIELD base to be detained. When they’d originally been briefed, it had seemed easy. Then they found out that they would potentially go up against not two people but three and that these three people had, well, superhuman abilities. The first guy, presumed to be the leader, was a short, caucasian, muscular man with black hair and stony blue eyes. His whole thing had been metal claws and an annoying ability to not get killed or injured. The other guy he’d been seen with was much more.. Intriguing to say the least. He had furry blue skin with yellow eyes, a tail, and prehensile limbs. His special ability had been disappearing into a cloud of purple smoke and reappearing in another place- teleportation. The two had been affectionately dubbed, ‘Claws and Paws’ by the quartet of men. The third person had never been spotted or identified, but they’d been present with the two men, having covered their tracks and used the computer system on multiple occasions in their favor.
The odd trio had been deemed a threat after they had had a run in with a group of SHIELD agents in London. The interaction with the trio had ended with several agents having been either stabbed, left on the roof of a nearby skyscraper, or with their feet having been fused to the floor, keeping them stuck in the ground. It had been a bizarre and violent discovery that had led Fury to call up Sam and request him, in his words to ‘get those slippery motherfuckers.’ Sam, naturally, called on Bucky and Torres’ help for the mission while de Fontaine had tacked on Walker.
And now they were here, in a cheap hotel in Incheon, South Korea, heading for a casino where Claws had been spotted a day earlier. Paws hadn’t been seen with him, nor had the mystery hacker. They’d figured, if they could catch one, they’d be able to find the other two. The plan had been for Bucky and Sam to stay in the main part of the casino while Torres and Walker would go and find the surveillance room to help locate Claws.
The four men entered the busy casino and immediately split up with Bucky and Sam going right white Walker and Torres went left to find the surveillance room. Sam led the way while Bucky stayed close behind, glancing at the small crowds surrounding the multitude of poker tables, gambling the night away and washing it down with absurd amounts of alcohol.
Meanwhile, Torres and Walker continued on towards the edge of the room. At the last second, Torres took a turn and sat on a barstool. His sudden action was met with a fleeting scowl from Walker as he stood by him. They looked around, trying to think of where in the building the surveillance room would be. A young woman in a black casino uniform with a yellow vest walked past them with a tray of empty glasses.
Torres quickly piped up, “Hello, miss, uh,” He glanced down at her nametag and read the name, “Miss Ariel, could you point me in the direction of the surveillance room?”
“I beg your pardon?” She looked at him perplexed.
“We are the camera repair guys, we came to check the surveillance system. You know, gotta make sure the cameras are working so nobody steals, right?” Torres rambled off in an effort to not be suspicious.
Ariel tilted her head and then examined them as she slowly placed the empty glasses on the bar, “And you’re dressed in formal wear?”
“We were instructed to dress formally in order to blend in with guests. If we came in in uniform, we would alarm the guests. And we don’t want that, right Jose?” Walker interjected, making up a fake name for Torres on the spot.
“That’s true, Jack,” Torres agreed with an edge to his voice as he assigned a fake name to Walker.
The worker still looked at them with confusion and slight judgment before holding the tray and walking past them, gesturing for them to follow.
Sam and Bucky watched as the two men left the room and then looked around for any sign of Claws. Finally, they spotted Claws in a black suit and dress shirt with a yellow bow tie. He’d been glowering at a man he was gambling with, having presumably lost money. Sam signaled to Bucky to start moving towards him. They made their way over to him, with Sam being on Claws’ right and Bucky on the left. Claws grumbled something to himself before noticing the two men beside him at the poker table.
“D’ya need somethin’?” He asked with a low, grumbly voice.
“Just here to make some money,” Sam responded with a nonchalant tone. Bucky stayed silent.
“And ya?” He raised a brow at Bucky on his left.
“Same thing for me,” Bucky improvised, hoping it’s be believable enough.
Claws shrugged it off and the gambling started. Bucky and Sam exchanged a glance and realized that he either didn’t know who they were or didn’t care.
Torres and Walker followed this girl down the hall, not really sure why she so readily led them to the surveillance room. She was a little thing with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. She finally stopped and then pulled out keys from her pocket to unlock the door. She then stepped in.
“Uh, ma’am you don’t have to go in with us while we do maintenance,” Torres brought up.
“You think I’m just gonna let you mess with our cameras without somebody watching?” She leaned on one leg, still holding the tray at her side.
“I’ll wait out here with you, Ma’am,” Walker bowed his head.
Ariel narrowed her eyes at the both of them and then relented, “Fine, but if you mess anything up I’m blaming you.”
Torres nodded and went inside, finding the surveillance room completely empty. He was less concerned about the empty room and more so about completing the mission. On one of the cameras he spotted Sam and Bucky sitting next to Claws. He decided his next best bet was to try and see if Paws was nearby.
Walker stood next to Ariel, both watching the cracked door of the surveillance room. Walker turned his head slightly to get a better look inside. He took his attention off Ariel for only a moment, but that was enough for her to raise the tray. He turned his head to look back at her and was struck in the face with the metal tray. He yelped and grabbed his nose which now had blood trickling out of it. He was disoriented at first, but he could see that she now donned a mask over her mouth. Those hazel eyes held nothing but contempt for him as she hit him with the tray again. This time, he hit the ground with a thud, falling unconscious just outside the surveillance room.
Torres heard the thump outside and turned to look. His eyes widened as he realized there was a black leather jacket hung on the wall of the surveillance room. The back of the jacket had the elaborate design of a purple dragon painted on the black leather. His attention then turned to the door as it creaked open and Ariel stepped back in. She then picked up the jacket and put it on. He realized she was masked now.
“You with the Captain?” She asked, putting her arm into one sleeve.
He nodded slowly, watching for her next move. She was the third of the trio. It was Claws Paws and this chick who was surprisingly threatening despite her small stature.
“Then I am so sorry for what’s about to happen,” She apologized, but he could tell she didn’t actually mean it.
Suddenly, the dragon design on her jacket materialized and formed a small dragon with beady yellow eyes that yawned once it solidified. She then scratched the little dragon’s chin and pointed at Torres. The dragon squawked and then spread its wings and launched itself at Torres. Everything went black and all he heard was a single BAMF!