Taming The Ghost

Chapter 2

It took them four years to track me down. They found me on a street somewhere in New York and took me in for questioning after more reports had come to them of multiple murders committed using no weapons. I wasn't in the best shape back then. It was all caused by my so-called-father when he decided that it wold be fun to bring his work home with him. He worked for Hydra, I knew that now, and he was trying to develop a drug to better the super-soldier serum. One day he thought he'd cracked it but he had nothing to test it on, then came the bright idea to use his own daughter. I was only 8. He injected me with various different potions for 4 years before I finally decided that I didn't want to be his guinea pig anymore. I was sat in an old dentists chair with leather bonds around both wrists while my father extracted another one of his mixtures from a small glass jar.

"Now, Jessie," he called me by my real name, my name before S.H.I.E.L.D., before this new life, "You know how this works. Just sit still and your compliance will be rewarded." The powers I had gained from these experiments gave me the strength I needed to break my thick restraints and the reflexes necessary to knee him in the crotch, slam his head into a metal table and run as fast as I could out into the heart of the city. After an hour of running, it suddenly dawned on me that I had no money, no food and nowhere to go. That's when I realised that I had just knocked my father clean out in under 10 seconds. I could easily replicate it on other people, steal some supplies and then be on my way before they woke up and called the police, so that night I decided to try it out. I climbed the drainpipe of a small apartment building, slunk through an open window on the fifth floor and crept up on a woman who was in the bathroom doing her make-up, getting ready for a night out. It was all going well until she spotted my reflection in the mirror. She screamed and I panicked. I ran forwards and gripped her skull slightly too hard. I could feel the bone crunch under my grip; I knew in that instant that I had killed her. In a blind panic I hurried through her apartment, picking up a backpack and stuffing it with jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, money and any food that I could find. I found a gun hidden in her bedside table but I had no use for weapons when I had my hands. Without thinking, I leapt out of the window and landed on the ground without a scratch...

I shot awake in a state of panic, sweaty and out of breath from the nightmare, or rather memory, that I'd just had. I remembered it all like it was yesterday. That wasn't how I wanted my life to turn out, I wanted to be a marine biologist, but that's how I ended up living for so long until I started to slip. I started leaving accidental traces. That's when S.H.I.E.L.D. were informed of what I was doing. It was early one morning when they surrounded me on one of the quieter back streets of the bustling city. I had no way out so I gave up and let them take me. It took a long time in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell for me to come to terms with the fact that I could use my powers for good. From then on I trained every other day but I lived with the knowledge that my monster of a father was still out there doing who-knows-what to God-knows-who. I despised that man. I still do. He made my life a living hell and if I ever get my hands on him I'll be more than happy to repay the favour.

Looking over at the red numbers that were blaring on the alarm clock on my bedside table, I saw that it was 6 a.m. I groaned. I didn't need to be up for another one and a half hours. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn't get back to sleep so I dragged myself sleepily out of bed and put the kettle on to make myself some coffee. While the kettle was boiling, my mind slowly drifted to todays mission. I wasn't going to lie to myself; try and pretend that this was just a basic job taking down some basic guys with some average weapons because it wasn't. I wouldn't have been recruited  if it were. The Winter Soldier was dangerous, very dangerous, and I knew he wouldn't hesitate to kill me if he thought I was endangering his life. The hazards I was facing were very real and my life was going to be at risk at all times.

The click of the kettle snapped me out of my thoughts as the water inside simmered gently. I poured the boiling liquid into my cup and stirred it before taking it through to the living room. Half-heartedly, I flicked the TV on to find the early morning news. Honestly, the news bored me, the only reason I put it on was for background noise and for something to occupy my mind; stop myself from thinking about inevitable death and such.

I watched on, not really listening, as the reporters droned on about some kind of rise in taxes when there was a sudden interruption to bring a breaking story.

"This just in, a man in a black military grade uniform has been spotted in a grocery store in southern D.C. sporting a metal arm. He seems to be armed and police have warned the public not to approach this man..." my eyes widened as the woman continued to read the report from the teleprompter behind the camera she was looking into. I put my coffee down on the table in front of me and shot out of my apartment, still in my pyjamas, to tell Steve about what I had just heard.

I didn't have far to run, he only lived across the hall from me but I still went as fast as I could. My fist pounded on his solid wooden door until I eventually began to feel pain. I heard the locks being undone from the inside and the door swung open. A bleary eyed Captain America greeted me in a grey t-shirt and matching joggers

"Where's the fire?" he said, rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand

"Bucky's been sighted." my words were like a shot of caffeine to him

"What?! Where?"

"A grocery store in southern D.C. It was just on the news."

"Get dressed. Gather everyone in the meeting room as fast as you can, we need to go now while we know he's still there."

"Aye, aye, Captain." I replied before running back across to my apartment to get dressed. I'd always wanted to say that.

Once I had climbed out of my pyjamas and into my uniform, I locked my flat and ran down every hall on every level of the building banging on peoples doors as I went and screaming at them to get to the meeting room as fast as they could. We couldn't waste even a second of the time we had. If Bucky was gathering supplies then that meant he was going to move. He wouldn't risk being seen otherwise.

Everyone got together around the massive oval table with Steve and myself stood at the head of it. Sam caught my eye from across the room and smiled, I shot him a quick smile back but I was too focused on the situation at hand to put any feeling into it. As soon as the last person sat down, Cap started talking.

"The reason I got Laura to gather you all here so early is because she informed me that there were reports of the news that Bucky had been sighted. We need to go for him now otherwise we might miss him. Laura?" Steve gestured to me and I gave him a short nod before relaying my information to my colleagues and, when I'd finished, the Captain ordered everyone to move out.

Sat in the truck, I zoned out, like I usually did before any mission, to get myself into a combat mind-set but this time I found my thoughts wandering towards the Winter Soldier. If Hydra did all of those horrible things to him then that meant that the man he once was was under there somewhere. It was true for me. All I needed was some rehab and I was back to my normal self, super strength and moderate anger issues aside. The only problem was that he would need a lot more rehab than I did to get him to stop wanting to murder everyone he encountered. He had more done to him that I had. The poor guy.