~Bucharest, Romania~
Once a sinful city that served as a playground for vampires and werewolves, it had now regained a semblance of order under the gradual cleansing by the Masters of the Mystic Arts...
Those dark creatures were once again kept in check, no longer the apex predators of the food chain.
A man in a baseball cap and gray jacket pushed open the door to his apartment. His face was scruffy with unshaven stubble. He entered the apartment, only to find Steve Rogers standing before him in full uniform, vibranium shield in hand.
The two men locked eyes, and for a moment, it felt as though an eternity had passed between them.
Bucky's tense muscles relaxed slightly. Had it been anyone else, he might have lunged forward and snapped their neck with his metal arm.
"Before you left the U.S., you went to the museum. Did anything there make you remember?" Steve asked, his eyes filled with hope.
They maintained a cautious distance... neither certain whether the man before them was still James Buchanan Barnes, the best friend of Captain America, or just the Winter Soldier, a hollow weapon.
Bucky remained still, frowning as if struggling to piece together the shattered remnants of his past, "Fragments. You're Steve Rogers. We knew each other back in Brooklyn. You were that scrawny little guy who stuffed newspapers in his shoes."
Ever since nearly being killed by Iron Man, the floodgates of his deepest memories had burst open, overwhelming his mind.
Flashes of disjointed images flickered through his thoughts. They were fleeting, elusive, and impossible to grasp.
Bucky continued, "We delivered milk to the rich, worked as paperboys for tips. We'd lay couch cushions on the floor and play 'King and Guard', You broke the law, hopping between enlistment offices, just to join the war. Steve, I remember you. Those memories keep rushing back."
"The museum doesn't mention any of that." A relieved smile tugged at Steve's lips.
He took a careful step forward, "We need to leave. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be here soon. You can't outrun them."
"I've done terrible things. I don't remember most of it, but the faces, the fear, the blood... they're clear." Bucky exhaled sharply.
With Hydra gone, he no longer had to be their killing machine. So he wandered aimlessly, eventually ending up in Romania.
After S.H.I.E.L.D.'s regime change, Hydra's main forces had crumbled. Under General Ross's leadership, the remnants of the Nazi organization were hunted ruthlessly by the new commander, Helmut Zemo.
With no safe haven left in North America or Asia, Bucky had fled to Eastern Europe and lived under the radar.
Fortunately, Hydra's old safe houses still existed, all stocked with forged IDs, passports, cash, and weapons. But with the Registration Act in full swing, even superheroes were now under government scrutiny. For a wanted man like him, survival was getting harder.
Especially with Project Insight active. The entire planet was under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance. If they wanted someone found, not even the Amazon rainforest could hide them.
Bucky knew his reputation: the man who abducted Nick Fury, and assassinated Alexander Pierce. He was branded the 'S.H.I.E.L.D. Killer'...
Two directors had fallen by his hand, making him the World Security Council's most wanted.
Yet, his memories as the Winter Soldier remained hazy at best.
Hydra's brainwashing was flawless. It turned him into a programmed machine that executed orders without question, with kill switches in place to prevent his true self from awakening.
"We'll figure it out. But we have to go. Now. Before Tony gets here. There's no need for this to end in a fight." Steve's voice was urgent.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had already triangulated Bucky's location before he'd even arrived. Special forces were likely surrounding the area, buying time for the superheroes to arrive.
According to Sam's estimate, Iron Man would be here within thirty minutes. And when that happened, blood would spill.
"It always ends in a fight, Steve."
Bucky peeled off his glove, revealing the cold glint of his metal arm. The sound of boots pounding up the stairwell reached his ears.
Local SWAT teams had already evacuated the apartment building.
A battering ram was in position. A flashbang shattered through the window, only to be deflected mid-air by Captain America's shield.
Four tactical officers breached the window. The locked wooden door splintered open as more agents stormed in.
Gunfire erupted. The small apartment descended into chaos...
"Bucky!"
Steve watched as his friend moved like a predator, taking down the SWAT team with brutal efficiency before bursting into the hallway and leaping off the balcony.
Trained as Hydra's elite assassin, the Winter Soldier was a lethal force. He was a master of firearms, explosives, and infiltration. His mechanized arm, which was powered by advanced hydraulics, packed enough strength to rival even a super-soldier.
Mid-air, Bucky's metal fingers clamped onto a steel railing, swinging him into another apartment. He sprinted through, then vaulted onto the rooftop of the adjacent building.
However, two helicopters were already waiting.
Tall heavily armored soldiers rappelled down on black cables, releasing their grips at the last second to land with unnatural precision.
Dressed in black uniforms emblazoned with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eagle insignia and a Hellfire armband on their right arms, they moved in perfect sync, exuding a flawless military precision.
This was the 'Hellfire Squad', a joint project between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the military. Enhanced by super-soldier serums and armed with energy weapons, their overwhelming strength quickly forced Bucky into retreat.
Steve broke through the barricade, rushing to intervene, while Falcon who was providing aerial support swooped in on his jet-powered wings.
But against thirty Hellfire operatives, their efforts were futile.
Back then, a single super-soldier leading the Howling Commandos could dismantle Hydra and crush Nazi forces.
Now, Captain America was facing mass-produced super-soldiers of his own caliber.
"Cap, we might wanna call it!" Sam's wing was struck by an energy blast, sending him crashing to the ground.
They were surrounded with no clear exit. The superheroes hadn't even arrived yet, and already, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strike team had them outmatched.
The Winter Soldier was subdued.
Captain America relied on his vibranium shield to barely hold his ground against the devastating energy weapons.
Then, two suits of armor descended from the sky...
War Machine raised his repulsor cannons, his shoulder-mounted minigun locked onto the fugitives.
"Congratulations. You're now officially criminals."
Colonel Rhodes moved to arrest Bucky and Sam, preparing to load them onto a transport.
The red-and-gold armor of Iron Man stepped forward and knocked the vibranium shield from Steve's grip with a single strike.
Tony's cold voice echoed from within the helmet: "My father made that. You don't deserve to carry it."
...
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