station72 | 052 || before the bomb party starts

[ two of your broodmate(s) are conspicuously absent, despite the overwhelming necessity that is DISARMING AN ENTIRE BOMB. ]

( I managed to catch him. He'll be all right. )

[OKAY LOOK SOME PEOPLE ~~named Red~~ HAVE BAD SENSES OF TIME and just said this is in some nebulous chunk of time before the bomb so uh yes.]

(What happened to him?)

[ and some people named pax may have top comments on this post, but will pretend for the sake of everyone else that they are the "last to comment". wibbly timey shenanigans. ]

( We detained Kulap Aquila for questioning, in regards to the mission -- )

[ not a complete lie, but there is a lie in there ]

( She called security on myself, Bellamy and Murphy. The other two are currently in prison. )

[GO US WE ARE AWESOME AT THIS yes.]

(Prison?)

(And you just let it happen?)

[ there is, without a doubt, one HELL of a cold fury that rises in him - when Shiro insinuates that he just

stood aside. ]

( I did not. )

[He hesitates, of course, at that anger. Before something in him steels itself. Cold fury and hot resolution. A shadow of that rage from before, backed by a promise made ages ago.]

[I'm not letting my team be taken away from me again.]

(Then why are they locked up, and you aren't?)

[ You're not the only one, Shiro, who's lost people who were dear --

( There is a man, dead on the wooden deck of a capsizing ship. Dressed in red, red blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Empty eyes. A throat heavy with bear claws. The Darkling's own, brief, wrenching pain at the sight of him cast to the ground and abandoned. )

-- interchangeable with Bellamy, sick in his bed, heavy with sweat and disoriented by his own power. The sensation that though they three are brood, he clearly harmonizes far more with Bellamy - who hatched the same day that he did. ]

( Because I can break in to reach them, easier than I can break out. )

[He throws back, almost in defiance, that looming, angry presence still lurking behind every thought, his own memories. Of a crystal clear moment when it had to be him. Has to be me, he'll die otherwise, this is a chance. Of throwing himself on the smaller body, yelling in feigned rage and hoping he'll understand. Hands pulling, dragging him away while the other is left in prison--]

[And melding into Allura's face. Calm and resolute and sad as she watches him leave her behind. Hands closing around her. Dragging her away. Knowing it should have been him. It always should have been him, but she'd thrown him to safety and there is so much guilt... She is lost behind closed doors, left imprisoned --]

(Does he know that?)

[ they parry with memories, with images. an even match, and from him - the soft vibrato of his approval as shiro pushes back. that's better, he thinks. whatever fury had possessed him before, seemed to have returned the steel to his spine and the edge to his teeth. some of the chilliness returns to the darkling's mind, as he pulls back - deeming their exchange "fair", apparently. ]

( He knows me, Shiro. I will not leave him, or his companion, behind.

Unfortunately, this means I will not be of much help, during the last legs of this long, arduous mission. )

[At least where this is concerned. Where this Nerve is concerned. Where people being left behind is concerned. Someone who should have been saved...]

[But he doesn't throw anything else back into the Darkling's "face" for the moment. Even while the metaphorical "hackles" are still up.]

(Fine. As long as he knows.)

(I'm going with the others. I'll tell them.)

( Be safe, Shiro. We've lost someone to an explosion before.

I don't want to lose any of you. )

[ he's definitely talking about brood > nest, but it's a decent sentiment from a man like him. ]

(You won't.)

(... I think I'm harder to kill than that.)

[He thinks. He hopes. All evidence would point to that fact though, so. He'll try to project more confidence.]

[ the mental equivalent of a mournful smile, and the flash of the red-robed man, gone cold and still.

seems it's not the first time that he's known someone who's said such.

he pulls away, then. to give shiro the time to prepare for his own mission. ]

( No. )

[Worry bubbles into Bucky's side of the nest link.]

( You didn't get anything at all? )

(A little. Just... that he wasn't all right. And when I tried to get back to him, there was nothing.)

[And maybe if he was better at this, he'd have been able to grab that connection.]

( How long ago? )

[That guilt is not unfamiliar to Bucky and he finds himself shutting off pieces of his side of the link to keep it from getting through.]

(Just a minute or two. Have you seen him?)

[If the answer is yes, he's prepared to get up and go after him.]

( No. ) [ But this gives Bucky better context. He starts trying to reach Bellamy on his end, but to similar success.]

( I can't reach him either. ) [Bucky tries to remember the last time this happened to anyone, but acutely recalls trying to find Giorno, his sleeping broodmate, and nothing.]

( Is it... empty? ) [That's the only way he can describe the missing link with Giorno.]

(At least it's not just me, I guess.)

[But that's a hollow comfort. He knows it -- and the sentiment surrounding the words reflects it.]

[There's a pause, while he tries to see if there's... anything empty around the link.]

(No. It's not like when -- it's not like that. He's still here.)

[Bucky doesn't get the feeling that Bellamy would ignore a broodmate, not when Bellamy helps out a non-broodmate on the regular.

That said, he's not exactly sure how to voice support in this situation, but he's glad that this guy can at least sense that Bellamy isn't gone.]

( You know where he is? ) [Bucky can more or less find his broodmates by (clumsily) yanking on the threads tying him to the others, but he doesn't really know if the situation is the same for everyone.]

[And not when Bellamy had been the first one on the scene when Shiro had literally lost his mind. He doesn't think he'd avoid him. Not after all that.]

(No, I don't. The party was about the last time I really saw him.)

[Yanking on threads sounds about right, to be honest.]

[Bucky knows the feeling. He must've missed the party, though that honestly doesn't surprise him. He's not a social gatherings kind of guy.]

( How long ago was the party. ) [Bucky's trying to build some kind of timeline to run through his HYDRA training to see what kind of survivability Bellamy's facing.]

(A few days.)

[He should have paid more attention. But the feeling on the other end of the link here isn't confidence-inspiring.]

(But he could have been here for a while afterward, too. I don't keep close tabs on everyone.)

[It's okay Shiro, Bucky's not looking for confidence-inspiring, just information.]

( Check with Sam Wilson. I'll keep my ear to the ground. )

[And, speaking of Sam, Bucky tries to emulate him with his next sentiment. ~~Dumb punk is rubbing off on him.~~]

( We'll find him. )

Edited 2016-12-21 00:55 (UTC)

(You know Sam?)

[A better question would be 'who doesn't know Sam Wilson really'.]

(Right. We will. If he's still alive, we will.)

[Yeah, Bucky figures everyone knows Sam at this point. Sam's just that kind of a guy.]

( You'd know if he was dead. )

(That's what I hear.)

(... thanks for confirming it.)

[The mental equivalent of a nod brushes against the link.]

( It's like losing an arm. ) [Bucky speaks from experience on two fronts, unaware of Shiro's own loss.

For a moment, though, Bucky's own memories flit through unfiltered. Falling. Cold. Gasping in vain with lungs that don't fill with air. Saws to his left arm. Gold light and sizzling flesh. He tries to catch himself and stem them up behind walls.]

[He almost says something depreciating. Something disarming (no pun intended), to agree with that sentiment. Something to lighten the heaviness of it.]

[And then everything stops. Everything gets cold and prickling, little sharp needles of ice along his skin. He sees that. He feels it. It's the wrong arm -- right arm heavy sharp pain dragging all along it and purple light kindling in his palm -- but the sudden, return rush of memory is undeniable.]

[His own aren't clear. They're fogged -- like someone has tried to board up a window into his mind -- but the images of dark figures pinning him down, bright lights overhead, pleading, whispering c h a m p i o n--]

[Bucky gets his walls up just as he feels himself wobbling on the edge. It's enough of a shock to where he's desperately clawing at everything Sam had taught him, gasping.]

(You --)

[You too?]

[Shiro's memories--- he thinks, or are those his--- break through Bucky's walls in an instant. Cold and prickling rushes against buzzing saws and a never-ending cycle of humming in his head. Wipe him. Fighting the other soldiers, programming like brambles crowning him as victor over enemy combatant and civilian alike. You will be the new fist of HYDRA. Pushed back into the chair. He doesn't get to keep the memory of the man on the bridge, doesn't get to remember his name---

Flashback. It's a flashback. Bucky realizes too late as he tries to pull himself free, tries to stem the tide.

Breathing. Seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven. His thumb traces the ridges of the challenge coin in his pocket.]

[No, he didn't want this -- everything else was supposed to help. But in the face of someone else's memories, so similar, so familiar, it feels like everything he'd learned is slipping out of his grasp.]

[The victor -- the champion -- everything getting taken away, struggling, fighting. Purple light and dark metal. Scorching lights and don't do it don't put me under. Heaviness and a gift a weapon where there should be flesh and bone and ... ]

[Counting?]

[Counting up. He picks up where it left off. Twelve to twenty. Listing off a flight check routine, shaking, gaining strength.]

[Flight checks. Right flight checks. Bucky fills in holes where he can, though with the technology he knows. Instead of rocket boosters, he substitutes quinn jet engines before continuing to count up from twenty to thirty, but in Russian.]

[Jet engines. What...? Where did those come from--]

(You flew?)

[Words. Actual questions and words. That's better. Right?]

[Bucky takes a few more deep breaths, focused on the challenge coin in his pocket as he responds to the question.]

( After. ) [After he lost his arm, after he he fell.]

(After.)

(I'm. Before.)

[If he's reading the implications of this correctly. But maybe it's not entirely true -- if it counts as flying the Lions or not.]

[After another few moments of breathing, of pressing his thumb into the coin in his pocket, he offers the mental equivalent of a nod.]

( Before. )

[Well, that's unexpected, for sure. He's not quite certain how to react to the idea that someone else lost their arm. For now, though, he's got other matters to focus on. Digging too deep would be unhealthy for them both.]

( We'll find Bellamy. )

[One on his end too -- short and sharp. Deep breaths.]

[This feels like something that needs to be discussed. Talked about. Something. But now isn't the time, is it? Now is the time to do things like plan attacks and find missing people.]

(He's alive -- so we've got to.)

( After we figure out he bomb, if Bellamy isn't back, I'll go out looking. ) [Which isn't something he would usually volunteer himself for, but he knows just how deeply a loss of a nestmate affects everyone connected.]

(I'm going with you.)

[He barely knows this person. But, this is bigger than just the two of them. This is more important.]

( Copy. I'll... keep you advised on the situation. ) [For now, Bucky has to pack up to get ready for the assault on the memory banks.]

(If I hear anything, I'll tell you, too.)

[He needs to get his butt in gear, too. And not get sidetracked by missing people.]

( Uh. No? What, did he go out to get cigarettes and never came back. )

(I don't know. Just one minute he was barely in my head, in trouble -- the next he wasn't.)

(That's why I'm asking around.)

( That doesn't make sense. He should still be able to talk to us, even if he was in trouble. Unless he got knocked out? )

(That's what worries me. If he's unconscious somewhere, with no way to contact us.)

( Don't you guys, like, have hackers and shit? This has gotta be in the system or whatever. His datapad. )

('You guys'?)

(Meaning who, exactly?)

( Everyone we're working with? Who the fuck else. )

052 || before the bomb party starts

CRASHES IN HERE, LATE AS ALWAYS.

IT'S COOL

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dear lord please help these children

someone shut them both up

/pages sam wilson

he's like obi-wan for brain problems

help me bro-bi sam kenobi

you're our only hope

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