I Never Told You What I Do For A Living | Bucky Barnes

8. Lessons Left To Learn

Chapter 8

Lessons Left To Learn

    Howard and I found ourselves in the lab the next morning, drinking the last of our coffee. He'd flown in from America to test some of the technology that Steve had brought back from the HYDRA factory, and he was excited to get to work. And he said that he couldn't get started without his favorite science buddy here to help him – which just so happened to be me.

    Even though I knew of the Tesseract, I'd never seen it or what it could do, I had heard Doctor Zola talking about a new energy source that he'd found, and I guessed that was what was being used to power the plane parts we'd been building in the factory, and all the weapons that were being designed. The little, glowing blue ball we were currently studying, looked a lot like what I'd seen in my time of being HYDRA's prisoner.

    "Emission signature is unusual. Alpha and beta rays neutral... Though I doubt Rogers picked up on that." Howard said as we both looked into the chamber that held the cartridge that Steve picked up, "Seems harmless enough. Hard to see what all the fuss is about."

    He removed the glowing pellet from the cartridge and touched it with the other mechanical hand, which sparked, and caused an explosion to blow the glass from the chamber. The force also caused Howard, the engineer with us, and myself to fly backwards across the lab; with a lot of glass and smoke to accompany us as we skidded along the floor, before coming to a stop about ten foot back.

    "Somebody write that down." I groaned, as other people who hadn't been caught in the explosion, came running over to give us assistance, "And does it seem so harmless now, Sparky?"

    Colonel Phillips soon joined us after he heard about what happened. He found Howard and I holding cloths to our heads to stop the bleeding, and groaning at all the aches that our bodies had now acquired.

    "We really should've thought this through." Howard yelled, so he could hear what he was saying, "Or at least had more protection."

    "What!" I was trying to hear him over the ringing in my ears, and shouting at each other seemed to be the best form of communication at the moment.

    Thankfully by the time Steve came in, the ringing had died down to a manageable level that we could speak to each other, and other people, normally. I was happy about it not being permanent because otherwise, my new job as a Howling Commando would be going down the toilet, faster than shit off a shovel.

    "Fondue is just chess and bread, Stevie," I told him, walking with him and Howard to clean part of the lab... Or at least, a part of the lab that wasn't covered in glass from this morning - even if they were still cleaning it up.

    "Really? I didn't think..."

    "Nor should you, pal. The moment you know what's going on in a woman's head, it's the moment your goose is well and truly cooked." We walked past scientists doing their own thing, "Me, I concentrate on work. Which at the moment, is about making sure you guys don't get killed. Carbon polymer." He picked up some of the fabric from the table, "Should withstand your average German bayonet, although HYDRA's not going to attack you with a pocket knife." Then he picked up Steve's shield, "I hear you're uh... Kinda attached."

    We continued to walk further into the lab. "It's handier then you might think."

    "I took the liberty of coming up with some options." Howard pointed to a table where he'd lined up all the different shield's he'd designed, "This one's fun. She's been fitted with electrical relays. It'll allow you to..."