Vertigo: Hydra's Greatest Weapon

Chapter 25

"Hey, Cal. What's up?" Tony asks.

"I wanted to talk to you guys."

"Alright. We're all ears, what's up?"

"It's about the Surgut mission."

"Is everything okay?" Bruce asks cautiously.

"I mean, I'm fine. It's just what I found there."

Tony gestures further into the lab. I lean back on one of the lab tables with the men standing in front of me.

"What'd you find?" Bruce asks.

"Files. Files upon files. Do either of you happen to know what V-R-T-O is?"

"V-R-T-O? Where'd you see that?" Bruce asks.

"On one of the folders. I think it said 'V-R-T-O Experiment' but I can't remember that well 'cause right after reading that, we were getting shot at."

"I've never heard of it. Could it be some sort of chemical?" Tony thinks out loud to Bruce.

"Possibly? We can do our research but I doubt we'll get too far," Bruce says to me.

"They're making super soldiers too," I mention.

"I don't doubt that," Tony sighs.

"Yeah, that's what Nat said too."

"That's how Bucky was made into a super-soldier. Why he has a vibranium arm. Hydra likes to steal people and experiment on them," Tony explains sympathetically.

"Hydra did that? Jesus."

"He was Cap's buddy in World War Two. Steve thought he lost Bucky but clearly not," Tony continues.

"That's gotta be tough."

"Gotta be. Anyway, we'll look into the experiment you found at the base," Tony smiles

"Okay great. Thanks. Let me know what you find."

-

Back in the training room the following week, I stand by the targets with some knives. I toss one in the air before hurling it at the human target. It hits the B-27 target perfectly in the chest. As I'm aiming for the next throw, I turn my head to the sound of the training room's doors opening.

"Hey," I greet Bucky, turning back to my knives. I throw it and it hits so close to the previous, it could have split it.

"Not bad."

"What?" I chuckle. "You can do better?"

"Didn't say that."

"Right."

"You ready for our spar?"

I turn my attention away from the target. Bucky and I had a spar planned for a little while and our free time finally lined up. I collect my knives from the target and ask, "What kind of rules are we setting?"

"Nothing too strict." He walks to where I am and snatches a small silver fixed blade, gesturing for me to make a choice. I choose a black butterfly knife.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're into knife play?" I ask, smirking as we step onto the mat.

Bucky just smiles and shakes his head. As we stand on opposite sides of the mat, I examine the man. His navy blue t-shirt over the shoulder of his black and gold metal arm. His dog tags hang loosely over his shirt until he takes them off and tosses them to the side, the same as me. His dark joggers scrunch at the bottom. We take off our shoes and start our brief stretches.

"Can I ask you something?" I start. He nods so I continue. "Is it weird? Having a metal arm?"

He shrugs. "You get used to it after a while."