Honesty ♧ Bucky Barnes

Infiltration

I have no idea why I'm getting all of these out so quickly when I should be revising for my A-Levels but here we are. (If you're getting bored of all the science, DON'T WORRY. The real action starts happening in chpter 5, so you don't have too much longer to wait) Hope you enjoy, and please vote if you're liking this x

ERIN POV

Erin hated rats. The lab rats that S.H.I.E.L.D. had acquired were smaller than an average rat, slightly more white than grey, but that did nothing to prevent her skin from crawling every time that she saw them. She figured it was something to do with the tails, protruding from the animals' backs like little furry worms. She looked down at the cage in front of her, holding her clipboard in one hand and a sheet of blood test results in the other, and shivered.

Cellular trials had been a flying success. Every white blood cell that she had tested M.F.C.T.S. against hadn't reacted abnormally at all, so the heads of the ChemEng department had given her the go-ahead to start animal trials. Unfortunately for her, that involved rats.

The rat that she was focusing on, subject B565, whom the biology department had aptly nicknamed 'Mouselini' due to his tendency to bite and the slightly darker patch of fur above his top lip that looked an awful lot like a moustache, scurried through the clear plastic tubing, healthy as anything. Erin couldn't help the small smile that flickered at the corner of her mouth at the sight. She had already tested the rat's urine and found it to contain traces of M.F.C.T.S, meaning that the serum was being passed straight through the rat's system and straight out without any complications. She had taken a small blood sample from the rat, three days after injecting it with a miniscule concentration of her synthesised serum, and it had come back completely clear.

She was one step closer to human trials, and she was ecstatic for them. Her serum, a synthetic compound that had taken years of hard work and months of trials to perfect, was very almost a reality.

Erin opened up the metal rat cage and picked the small creature up, avoiding its sharp teeth. She'd already been bitten at least three times during animal trials, she wasn't keen to make it four. She gave it a final look over, checking its fur, eyes, tail, even its teeth and toenails, to make sure that the serum had had no obvious external affects. The rat was perfectly healthy.

"I've done it. I've bloody done it..." she muttered to herself, slightly disbelievingly.

She placed Mouselini back in his cage carefully, and took the piece of paper off her clipboard, walking over to her computer. She opened up her M.F.C.T.S. folder and inputted the data, before closing the file and switching off the computer, placing the sheet of paper in the shredder. Her work was top secret, of course. If the serum was to ever get into the hands of a person without the right intentions, it could be disastrous. That was the main reason that she used her own computer, which she had managed to encrypt herself, meaning that all the data was meaningless to somebody who was unable to unlock it. It wasn't that she didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D, but she preferred not to share her test results on its company-wide database.

She threw her laptop in her rucksack and left the lab, locking the door behind her with her key card, and almost walking into a young man on her way out.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she muttered, looking up in embarrassment. He was tall, with his light blonde hair scraped back behind his ears.

She'd seen him around the base, and figured he must be a science worker. That or a trainee, the guy barely looked nineteen, his pale complexion looking even paler underneath the bright lights of the hallway.

"No, no. It's my fault. I'm sorry," he laughed nervously. The poor guy seemed terrified, his hands were shaking, even though he had them clasped tightly in front of him, "I'm Goodwinson."