Take Off The Mask // Son of Stark 2

Chapter 13

Sharon tossed a piece of paper towards Sam. "The receipt for your gear..." She smirked, when the Falcon read out what it said- tucking her hair behind her ears at the same time.

"Bird costume?" Sam said, annoyed. He sighed, loudly. "Come on!" He placed the paper on the table and gave Sharon a look that anyone could read.

She placed her hand over her heart and exclaimed, "I didn't write it... though,  I do wish I was able to take credit for that." She again suppressed her laughter at Sam's facial expressions. She pressed a small, silver button and pointed up at the screen; the audio of it was now turned on.

Sharon and Sam both looked at the screen, watching as the two men interacted.

A man, who had curly, black hair, which somehow avoided his empty, grey eyes, stood in front of where Bucky was being held. He looked at the soldier, taking in everything the man out of time did. He hid his smile, trying not to show how happy he was that he had managed to be the one allowed to evaluate Barnes. "Hello, Mr. Barnes. I've been sent by the United Nations to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit? Your first name is James?"

Bucky didn't answer. He didn't even move a muscle. Something was off about the man and his foreign... Sokovian accent. He could tell that nothing good could come but he wasn't going to try anything. He had to make a good impression on S.H.I.E.L.D. again, even if it was just to please Steve. Anyway, he could easily break out of the pod: he just didn't want to.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James? I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

Hydra used to call him James... back before they had fully wiped his memory. Back when he still screamed for Steve through the tortures the organisation had concocted.

* * *

"Pepper... you gotta tell me what's going on." Peter whined, using the same tone Luke Skywalker did throughout the entirety of the originals. "If Pops did something, surely I deserve to know?"

The redhead took a deep breath. "Peter, I can't tell you because I don't know. If I knew I'd say... I promise."

"Okay, I believe you."

* * *

Steve took another long, hard stare at the the blurry photo of the man, who had been behind the bombing of the congress meeting in Vienna. "Why would the Task Force release this photo to begin with?"

"Get the word out, involve as many eyes as we can?" Sharon supplied, hoping it was the right answer the Captain wanted to here.

Steve nodded his head. "Right. It's a good way to flush a guy out of hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken. Get seven billion people looking for the Winter Soldier."

"You're saying someone framed him... aren't you?"

"Steve, we looked for the guy for almost two years and it took all of our resources to find him." Sam rubbed his head and added in a whisper, "Man, I still have so much sleep to catch up on."

"We didn't bomb the UN. That turns a lot of heads."

"Yeah, but that doesn't guarantee that whoever framed him would get him. It guarantees that we would," Sharon cut in. Then, she turned her attention to the screen showing Bucky and the evaluator.

Steve frowned, the skin on his forehead creasing as he looked around. "Yeah," he muttered. Sharon's eyes narrowed as she watched the curly-haired man take another step towards Bucky's pod.

* * *

"Tell me, Bucky... you've seen a great deal, haven't you?" He grinned, showing his perfectly-white teeth. His phone vibrated; a message popped up on its screen.

"I... don't... want... to... talk... 'bout... it," the soldier said through gritted teeth, trying his best not to lose his temper. He knew what happened when the other him got out: people usually ended up dead.

"You fear that... if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop. Don't worry... We only have to talk about one."

* * *

Darkness. Everywhere. The power was out and Tony Stark had no clue what had happened. However, he did enjoy the moment of watching Everett hiss in panic, when he realised that no power meant no security cameras... and then he realised it affected him too.

"Great... Come on, guys, get me eyes on Barnes! Go." Everett snapped, keeping the same amount of cool as the sun.

Tony tapped his glasses. "FRIDAY, get me the source of that outage."