Flickers | Bucky Barnes

Escape

Since Tony's visit, Karina could admit she suspected something to happen. Not directly to the Raft itself, but she expected some commotion from the higher ups. More questions – taunting – something. Instead, the place had them still following the same mundane routine. She at least thought she would be able to sleep in, but nope they ran the joint like a military boot camp.

Surprisingly, they had let her and the men out of their rooms and even Wanda. For the sake of the young woman, she ignored the shock collar around her throat and that she arrived to chow hall in a straitjacket. Besides, she was genuinely happy to see the promising witch and Wanda seemed relieved to the point of tears to have human contact outside of the guards.

All of them were talking animatedly and for the sake of the reunion between them all, they didn't discuss Tony's visit and the lack of response from anyone. They joked about what they would do to the guards, how they planned on decorating their rooms, and albeit grimly if they would receive new roommates and how to break them in.

Besides the talk about the prison, they did venture onto personal territory.

Sam and Clint were more reserved, more so Clint.

Sam gave a Sparknote version of his upbringing and career in the military. He regaled on how he met and befriended Captain America which resulted in his unfavorable encounters with The Winter Soldier. He told them how for the last two years in between being a New Avenger, he mostly helped Steve look for James in between volunteering as much as he could at the Veteran's center until he became too busy with superheroes.

Clint, of course, didn't share much other than he was retired and liked to farm and he definitely wasn't budging on the nature of his and Natasha's relationship although he did admit they met on a mission and no it wasn't Budapest.

Wanda, embarrassingly, Karina knew most of her backstory considering the amount of press the young Avenger received. Wanda seemed almost shocked at the reverence Karina held her in. Karina felt bothered that people's perception of the young woman was obviously affecting the young witch. But at the same time, it showed how real and normal Wanda still was despite being polarized for her actions on a much larger scale.

She learned this wasn't Scott's first time he been behind bars. Mr. Lang's first stint behind bars was due to him by trying to expose his former employer's embezzlement by using his skills as a cat burglar breaking into their headquarters, hacking into the system, and paying back the money to the customer's the company had been stealing, but he got carried away by breaking into the CEO's house stealing a few items and then driving the car into the pool.

Then after he was released from prison, Scott admitted he may have went back to old habits that resulted in trying to rob Hank Pym who was the creator of his suit which as he said the rest is history.

Besides being labeled as a criminal, Scott was a very intelligent man with a Master's degree in electrical engineering. He was a father to a little girl named Cassie. He currently had a girlfriend named Hope who happened to be Hank's daughter. Karina was sure being in prison kind of threw a wrench into the relationship, but she tried to console him by saying at least it wasn't for a repeat offense.

Then all focus turned to her. She gave them her basic normal backstory yet she felt Sam eyes on her as if he had something to tell her. And obviously they all became interested when it came to her and James' interactions as The Winter Soldier – for Sam – everyone else was more concerned about what they did for two years before James was flushed out of hiding dragging her along.

"You know most people would consider you crazy, right." Clint stated in his blunt manner.

Karina shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know why considering he was brainwashed. They literally scrambled his brain making him forget everything other than their programming. To me, he was the longest held prisoner of war and he is just a veteran recovering from years of trauma. I'm not stupid. There were some episodes, but..." Karina trailed off as she pursed her lips and she felt as if she was defending her decision to be his friend, for caring for him.