Taming The Ghost

Chapter 1

Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man, Hawkeye and a few extra highly skilled agents, including myself, were gathered around a large oval table in one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting rooms, which used to be an apartment in the building that the remaining members of the organisation had bought to house the few workers that they had left. We had all been given a wake up call at the crack of dawn and gathered on the request of Nick Fury and Captain Rodgers.

"Alright Agents, you have all been called here for an emergency mission. Cap will now explain to you your objective." Fury said in a stern yet monotone voice "Steve?" He shot a glance at the super soldier who was sat beside him before sitting down, allowing Captain America to take the spotlight.

"As you may, or may not, know I have been hunting for the Winter Soldier ever since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I think we may finally have some sort of a lead as to where he might be. With the help of Mr Stark's tracking technology we have traced him to a small subdivision just outside of Washington. We plan to head there tomorrow and that's where you all come in. I need the best agents that this organisation has to offer and Fury tells me that he's been saving you guys, and girl, of course," he said, gesturing to me, "For only the most dangerous of missions. That's exactly what this is. You will need all of your training for this mission to be successful and you can't forget that Bucky has been programmed to kill anything that may appear as a threat to him on-sight. Do you accept your mission?". Murmurs of 'yes' came from around the room and the meeting came to a close.

I picked up the files that I have been given and began to exit the room when someone called my name, or the name I had been given by S.H.I.E.L.D. when they brought me in anyway.

"Hey, Laura, is it?" a deep male voice called. I turned around to see a tall guy half running towards me. Judging by his very short black hair he used to be a member of the military and got so used to the short hair while he was serving that he couldn't bring himself to grow it out.

"Yeah it is, Laura Jones, and you are...?" I asked

"Sam, Sam Wilson." he grinned

"Nice to meet you Sam." I smiled back and shook his hand. Sam flinched as I gripped his palm and I automatically let go of him. "Sorry, it's been 15 years and I still find it hard to control myself." I faked a laugh.

"No, it's alright. I just didn't expect you to be that strong, with you being so..." he gestured to my whole body and I chuckled

"Small? Yeah, nobody really does."

"What did you mean when you said it's been 15 years? 15 years since what?" Sam questioned

"Um... That's a bit of an uncomfortable subject for me." I held my files closer to my chest in discomfort as we walked

"Oh, no it's ok. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I was just curious that's all." he said, putting his hands in his jeans pockets

"I would tell you but we've literally only known each other for three minutes so I feel like it would be a bit inappropriate." I smirked

"Oh, yeah, no, of course!" Sam exclaimed

"Aaaaand this is my stop so even if I wanted to tell you I wouldn't have the time." I said coming to a halt in front of the elevator and brushing a piece of my ginger hair that had fallen from the pony tail I put it in this morning behind my ear. He grinned widely

"Ahhh, well, it was good talking to you Laura. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too Sam. See you tomorrow." I smiled before stepping into the lift and pressing the button for floor 10, the doors closing behind me. It was only midday and I could have gone out and done something but I wasn't much of an outdoors lover so I headed back to my apartment to prep for the job tomorrow and read the rest of my book so that, if I didn't make it through the mission, I knew how it ended before I died.

The elevator jolted to a stop at the top floor and I stepped out, rummaging around in my jacket pocket with one hand in an attempt to find my key. I came to the very last apartment on the right end of the hallway, number 199, and finally managed to grasp my key; pulling it out and twisting it in the lock. My door clicked open and I sighed, walking in and throwing my files down on the kitchen table; heading straight to my bedroom to get my uniform ready for the next day. I opened up my wardrobe and yanked out a pair of thick black skin tight trousers, a black vest top and a black Kevlar-coated jacket, hanging them up on the coat hook on the back of my bedroom door. Next, I went over to my drawers and pulled out a pair of black gloves that were only padded on the knuckles. These had been provided for me after S.H.I.E.L.D. had deemed me stable enough to work in the field, about two years after I had been taken in by them. Now that I was ready for my mission, I retreated to my bathroom to have a soak and read my book.

I was in the bath for a good hour before the water started to turn cold so I got out, put on my pyjamas and finished the last few pages of my book. After a few hours the book was finished. I had to admit, the ending was good but it set an unrealistic standard for relationships. In reality they probably wouldn't have lived happily ever after for the rest of their lives. They would have had problems and someone would have gotten hurt, that's why I tend to stay away from relationships. I guess I'm just too scared of getting hurt or hurting someone, and with my enhanced DNA the latter would be very easy. My boyfriend would have to be a literal machine to cope with my grip.

Having nothing to do, I decided that it would be best if I did my research for tomorrow so that I had as much of an advantage as I could possibly have, so I got my files from the table and opened up the one labelled The Winter Soldier. More had been added to it since the last time I'd seen it which was, I assumed, because Steve had been searching relentlessly to find anything he could on his old friend and his whereabouts. Up until recently there was barely any information on him, there still isn't much now. He is literally a ghost story.

'Name: James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes

Code name: The Winter Soldier

Birth date: March 10, 1917

Age: 99 (biologically 28)

Height: 6'

Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, known more commonly as Bucky to his friends, served in the 107th infantry alongside Captain Stephen Rodgers during World War II as a member of the Howling Commandos.

Officially declared killed in action following a fall from a train during a mission with Captain Rodgers in the winter of 1945.

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS RETREIVED FROM HYDRA DATABASES:

The Asset has been rehabilitated. We hope to use him as the world's most dangerous weapon. His left arm was lost when we found him in the ravine. Doctor Zola has invented a new cybernetic arm that has replaced it; Zola has also injected him with the super soldier serum that we have managed to replicate and perfect and his memory has been wiped to ensure that he does not get distracted from his missions by memories. Subject is unstable but should be fine after he is given time to adjust, he has been cryogenically frozen until we have need for him.

First performance: Cold war, Russia.

We tested him in the mother-land so that he could be repaired or retrieved easily if there were any issues. The arm jammed once but that was easily fixed. He works better than we had ever dreamed. Slightly unstable when woken but that is to be expected.'

As I continued to read I found myself becoming more and more disgusted. What kind of person would do this to an innocent man? They treated him as if he was a robot, reprogramming him every so often so that memories of his friends and family wouldn't disrupt his 'work'. It reminded me a lot of my father actually and I could definitely relate a lot to Bucky. More than I thought I could to a master assassin/ mass murderer. I could relate to his pain, if he even felt pain anymore thanks to HYDRA's sickening experiments, and I knew what it was like to be under their thumb. It felt like you were being kept in a cage that was sealed inside a vault, encased in concrete.

After 3 hours of taking in every detail of the information I was given, and stopping to make myself a sandwich, I decided to call it a day and crawled into bed where I cocooned myself from the outside world and drifted into an unstable sleep.