VITALITY ↝ B. BARNES [1]

[12]

The longer Elysia stayed in her temporary residence at the Avengers Compound, the more she gradually fell into a routine of her own. After breakfast, usually shared with Wanda and Vision, days with the team were spent either training, trying desperately to regain her abilities to their full potential, or across the compound in the lab with Bucky, Tony, Carlos, and Fernanda, attempting to analyze the code embedded in his brain to help with their mission to crack his brainwashing coding.

"What about this, here?" Fernanda pointed out curiously, her eyes studying the screen in front of them, scanning the brain waves of the cyborg sitting down on the edge of his seat, wires once again connected to his head so his mind could be analyzed. "There's a block here, preventing us from getting a better reading. I've never seen one like this before."

"So what does this mean?" Bucky asked nervously as Elysia's eyes scanned the screen over and over, her mind racing with ideas for any feeble attempts to see what lay behind the block.

"The block is written in a computer chip HYDRA embedded in your brain during your days as the Winter Soldier." Carlos explained. "If my theory is correct, that's also where your brainwashing code lies. If we could figure out a way to crack the code remotely without doing any damage, then perhaps the code words won't have any effect if they were ever used on you again."

"Can you do it?" Tony asked, tearing his eyes away from the computer screen to look over at Elysia, and the girl tensed up as she continued to watch where the map of his brain waves seemed to simply disappear over the affected area. "Can you crack the chip if we can access it remotely?"

"I think so," she answered, only slightly hesitantly. "It's going to take preparation, sure, and tools that we might not have access to here, but we have to try. If I can get to the chip, then I can crack it."

"Do it," Bucky said adamantly, desperation evident in his voice. "Whatever it takes, Sparks, you have to crack it. I'm just a danger to everyone here with it still active, and I can't be here knowing that."

Elysia gave Bucky a reassuring nod as Fernanda moved closer to Bucky, beginning to remove the wires from his temples and causing the screen to go blank as the machine no longer had a reading on the waves. "We'll begin preparations right away." the woman concluded. "Carlos and I will get everything together for you, Miss Sparks. In the meantime, I think that concludes our session for the day. We'll pick this up again first thing tomorrow."

Bucky rose from his chair, thanking Carlos and Fernanda as Elysia and Tony bid them goodbye, the three of them heading back to the living quarters of the Avengers Compound to meet the rest of the team for dinner. Their entire walk, Bucky stayed quiet, his mind no doubt plagued by the horrors of what he'd potentially be facing if their plan didn't work, not that Elysia could blame him. It was all she could do to keep studying the microchip every chance she got, so when the moment came she could deactivate it and put all of his fears to rest.

By the time they arrived in the kitchen, the others were already waiting for them, pizza boxes stacked in the middle of the counter. "There you are," Sam sighed exasperatedly in way of greeting, looking down at his watch. "I thought Steve over here was going to starve if we had to wait another minute, his stomach was growling so loud. Look at him, he's about to faint."

"Alright, alright," Steve retorted. "Very funny,"

"You guys didn't have to wait for us." Elysia assured them.

"Nonsense," Natasha replied. "Family dinners are family dinners. We don't eat until everyone's here."

"And besides," Vision added nonchalantly. "I don't eat food, so waiting was no inconvenience to me."

Elysia chuckled softly to herself as she reached into the first pizza box, taking two slices of pepperoni and piling them onto her plate, along with a couple breadsticks. She followed Wanda out of the line, taking a seat at the dining table between her and Bucky.