14640/A Winter's Hunt

A Winter's Hunt
Date of Scene:	27 November 2022
Location:	Suite G1 Guest, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Bucky comes by the suite to share with Nick and Skye what he's found out looking into the attack on the shelter. Operation Fortunate Son is reopened and an early flight is planned
Cast of Characters:	Winter Soldier, Phantasm (Drago), Quake
Tinyplot:	Fortunate Son

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Winter Soldier has posed:
There are few things more calculated to ruin someone's day than a visit from James Buchanan Barnes in an official capacity. Formerly as the Winter Soldier, lately as Agent Barnes of SHIELD, the two cause unhappiness and dismay wherever they fall upon the unwary, although the latter manages the feat with far less violence than the former. This the NYPD have found out to their cost, and every last micron of evidence retrieved from the shelter has been brought into SHIELD custody. Documents were seized, witness statements removed, and above all the surviving thug was comprehensively interrogated, Bucky style. So it should have been a content Bucky that returned to the Triskellion, mission accomplished.

Instead, it had been an ashen faced Winter Soldier who returned and unceremoniously took over one of the planning rooms. After a few hours, only the hardiest of souls still dared to come within two hallways from it, and it was hoped that eventually Bucky's occupation would flag after he ran out of coffee.

Alas.

It is now nearly exactly two days since Bucky went out on the hunt, and he is finally talking to people again, specifically inviting Skye to meet him in Nick's quarters, and for Nick to not go anywhere for a few hours.

When he does finally enter the room after a perfunctory knock, it is while carrying a folder in one hand and a sixpack of german beer in the other. Whatever his news is, it can't be good...

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
For the past few days it has been incredibly quiet in the suite Nick resides in. Since for awhile it looked like Nick would probably get to be leaving soon. he had already moved some of his belongings out of the place. But, that might have been a bit premature.

Nick now sits in the seating area of the suite, glancing down the hallway that leads to the roommates room. Considering how long ago it's been since the roommate left with his dog, Nick really wishes he had his instruments here to distract him from the general sense that something was about to hit the fan.

Instead, Nick finds himself rereading a familiar looking book with a worn cover.

The musician looks to the arriving agent, looks to the folder, the beer, and then Bucky's expression. "...fuck." The book is closed and set down on his lap.

Nick doesn't know what it is Bucky's about to tell them but he's certain he used the right word in response to it.

Quake has posed:
Skye was used to people, like Bucky, giving her a "Meet me there" with no other orders. Hell, she used to be a hacker. They weren't big on the names, and such. You had to decide if you trusted them, or not.

And Bucky? She trusted. 100 percent.

So when he said show up somewhere, and she had noticed some files had been reopened, she knew without a doubt that she was on a mission. Whether SHIELD, or something more.. quiet..

To that end, she gathered what she had worked on before, and her laptop, and headed down to the guest quarters, to meet with Bucky and Nick.

Winter Soldier has posed:
When Skye arrives and makes it three, Bucky wordlessly opens the sixpack and gives everyone a bottle. Almost idly, he pops the cap off his bottle with his left thumb and paces the room for a short while. Those familiar with him can surely recognise the signs... he has something to say that's both distressing and infuriating, and he doesn't want to just launch into it. Despite everything he is still a trained leader, and knows that some things require tact.

Ah, to hell with it!

"Cut off one head, another will grow in its place." there, he said it, and he motions to the folder on the table. It's the old 'Fortunate Son' file, sealed months ago after the raid on the DHS. "I thought we buried that. Buried it deep. I was wrong."

Deep breath. He glances over to Skye and then looks at Nick, finally sitting down.

"You were absolutely the target of the raid on the shelter. Tranq guns like the hit on the cabin, C4 placed in the same position for a breach just like the condo raid. And all but one of the attackers dead by cyanide poisoning. Survivor had his cyanide tooth knocked out in the fight, and then nearly died of an accidental overdose of insulin overnight. Except he wasn't diabetic. I had a little talk with him."

Fractional pause while the mind fills in the blanks of Bucky having 'a little talk' with a known HYDRA operative.

"Prodigy is still active."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
When the bottles are handed out, Nick is momentarily tempted to use his own ability to pop off his cap but with the likelyhood of needing another later and there being guests present-

The book is moved from the lap to a side table before the musician makes his way to the kitchen area. There's the sound of some rattling before he comes back to set a bottle opener on the table.

The bottle hasn't even finished it's 'Krsssh' when Bucky gets to ripping off the band-aid of blissful ignorance.

OUCH.

But likely not as much ouch as the guy Bucky had his talk with.

The mention of the project name is less than welcome. "...That's the one Dennis was in?" He's sure it is but God damn there were a lot of operation names mentioned in that.

Quake has posed:
"Fuck."

Skye was not one to piss around when times were tense, and now was such a time.

Taking her bottle, and sitting down, she nods. "I wondered. I mean before now. But you have nailed it. I looked at several of the old files, and other than the government agency, it seemed like they're running the same old game, though with dirtier hands. They must be desperate." She opened her bottle on the table with a *pop*. "I think his being under out protection has left them no choice but to use new ways to draw him out, and exterminate him if necessary."

Skye looks between them. "So, what do we do?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
"It's... probably worse than that." Bucky mentions to Skye, also not known for mincing words when things need to be discussed frankly.

"Wayward Son had Nick as its sole reason to exist until we shut it down. Nightingale destroyed itself. Legacy was entirely wrecked. As far as I read the situation, there was a power vacuum, and Prodigy has stepped in. Except, from what I managed to get out of the witness..." let's call the unfortunate soul that for now "... Prodigy doesn't know how or why Wayward Son and Legacy got terminated. All they managed to learn was that, shortly before being destroyed, Legacy wanted Nick. Wanted him bad. Bad enough to go up against Wayward Son. So Prodigy knew he was valuable, they just didn't know why. I'm betting they didn't even know he was under SHIELD protection now." All of which points to an operation that is resourceful and dangerous, but not able to keep up with recent developments for some reason.

"At any rate, there were four projects because even at the top HYDRA is split in factions. Now there's only one left. Unless we step on this, hard, that faction is going to grow in power quickly enough that they might unify HYDRA."

Talk about nightmare fuel.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Well so much for thinking of the guests and the furniture. But no matter. At least he justified the point of it even being supplied in one of these suites. Nick takes a sip of his beer as he listens to Skye theorizing about Hydra trying to clean up their tracks while Bucky's general theory is-

"...I'm going to need a diagram if this gets any bigger- When was the Legacy interest? I thought that was the Colby thing."

Quake has posed:
That didn't occur to Skye. ""Except, now, they do. Correct?" A pause. "Damn. Though if we stay on top of this, we might have a chance."

Fat lot of good. Hydra was infinitely more evil then SHIELD was. There were still some things that SHIELD agents would not do - unless they handed in their shields. Even Bucky.

And Skye had a pretty good notions of how the story would go if Hydra directed all of its heads towards one purpose. After all, she had helped them put up the world shattering web outages in her undercover ops.

Very bad, let's put it that way.

Winter Soldier has posed:
There is a moment of uncomfortable silence. To play for a second or two of time, Bucky takes another swig of his beer and then looks down at the floor for a moment before looking back at Nick. "The hit on the cabin while you were there... that was Legacy trying to snatch you, not Wayward Son."

For a moment he wonders if he should actually draw out a sketch pad, but decides that Nick's comment was almost certainly sarcastic. Almost. He's willing to take the risk. "When Wayward Son put out the hit on you, it was done with Legacy assets. Colby was the triggerman, but as you know his entire team was in on it." Which explains why afterwards they came to the cabin.

"When Legacy found out you were more than what you seemed, and that Wayward Son was trying to get rid of you, they made a play to acquire you as their own asset. I suspect Stuck was playing both angles there for a while, but someone at a level higher than him made the decision for Legacy to go up against Wayward Son. Ironically that brought them to our attention and we managed to take them both down in one hit."

One day a contractor will be finished repairing the damage to the New York DHS office, but Bucky had the teams go through that place like a bull on a rampage at the slightest sign of resistance, and today is certainly not that day. Nor next week, or next month.

He nods to Skye. "If we move fast, we can cut off that head too, and hope that this time there's nothing left to grow back."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick frowns, glancing aside as he follows along with Bucky's explanation. Well tries to. The furrowed brow betrays a bit of thought going on. Likely going over past memories but assigning proper names to them this time around.

And then one thing Bucky said registers a bit more. More than you seemed-

"...The hospital-"

Nick pauses. Then again there's a lot of stuff to filter through.

There's a shake of the head, seemingly giving up on making sense of things at the moment. "So they're acting like a bunch of kids wanting what the others were fighting over?"

Quake has posed:
Slowly Skye nods.

She knows that the myth says, if you cut one head, two more will take its place. The question is: could they stop what was happening before the heard's of Hydra knew what they were dealing with.

"Something tells me that Quake may be more helpful in the end?" Another pause. "Is this an official mission, or..?"

In other words how alive do they have to bring the people in. *If* they have to bring the people in.

Winter Soldier has posed:
"Official as I can make it. I've reactivated Fortunate Son." is Bucky's answer to Skye's question. Probably he'd prefer to do this the old fashioned way, but likely he's making this official because he might enjoy the old fashioned way far too much. Some things should never be dug back up. "We don't know which ideological faction supported Prodigy, so we have to be prepared for anything. But before we kick things off into high gear, we need to scout out our only lead. Carefully."

He doesn't comment on Nick's realisation about the hospital visit after the condo raid, but he does need to correct one thing. "At the moment they're acting like a raiding party that's trying to steal enemy technology and assets after a war between two countries that ended up in mutual destruction. Once they have what they want, then they'll start actively taking from others."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"...Ah."

Oh even better. He's that old sofa that gets put on the curb but doesn't quite make it to collection day because of some dumpster divers thinking it might be the right color to go with that rug they got a few blocks over. Maybe it's best not voice that one and just go with Bucky's explanation.

There's no question to how long it'll be. If the last go around is any indication, he already knows the answer to that. "Well...Guess I should start moving things back."

Quake has posed:
Skye turned on her laptop then, and began to open up numerous files. "I waited until it was official. Otherwise it was better to work on it at home, where it could not be tracked by anyone. But since it is official, we may as well use the scads of info in Hydra." Right now. There was no question that Skye would use the files on Hydra. It only meant how tricky she would be.

Poor Nick. She smiled quietly at him. "Welcome back?" As if he had ever left.. officially.

Winter Soldier has posed:
"Feel like decorating?" Bucky simply asks of Nick, finally finishing his beer and standing up. "Wouldn't bother if I were you, you won't be here long enough to enjoy it." Wait, what?

"Be ready, both of you, at six hundred tomorrow. We're taking a flight to the Kentucky office and driving to our last known lead. Don't know what we'll find, but it's the only place we've got. Once we've got something solid to grab, we'll pull out this thing by the roots."

Momentary pause

"With extreme prejudice."

Uhoh...

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick blinks as he hears Bucky's mention of not bothering. The bottle lowers as he listens to the new instructions. Looks like the waiting game is not on the table this time.

Nick couldn't help to smile a little to the last line. Considering how long he's experienced the 'wait and see' approach. Yep It's going to feel damn good to actually do something about the problem.

"You got it."

Quake has posed:
There it was. The time. The place. Who. What. Where. And most importantly: How.

Skye crooked a crooked grin. "Very well. See you tomorrow morning."