052 || before the bomb party starts

[shiro2hero]

(Did anyone else get an almost-message from Bellamy today?)

[There's concern in the message. And the ghost-feeling of the urgent, slip-through-the-fingers contact from his broodmate minutes before. Because how else do you describe what just happened?]

(I tried to get back to him and got nothing.)

[Needless to say, he's worried. Maybe someone else got something more concrete.]

Comments

[bracchium]

( 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.]

[shiro2hero]

(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.)

[bracchium]

[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.]

[shiro2hero]

[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.]

[bracchium]

[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.]

[shiro2hero]

(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.)

[bracchium]

[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. )

[shiro2hero]

(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.)

[bracchium]

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

( You'd know if he was dead. )

[shiro2hero]

(That's what I hear.)

(... thanks for confirming it.)

[bracchium]

[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.]

[shiro2hero]

[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?]

dear lord please help these children

[bracchium]

[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.]

someone shut them both up

[shiro2hero]

[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.]

/pages sam wilson

[bracchium]

[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.]

he's like obi-wan for brain problems

[shiro2hero]

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

(You flew?)

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

help me bro-bi sam kenobi

[bracchium]

[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.]

you're our only hope

[shiro2hero]

(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.]

[bracchium]

[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. )

[shiro2hero]

[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.)

[bracchium]

( 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.]

[shiro2hero]

(I'm going with you.)

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

[bracchium]

( 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.]

[shiro2hero]

(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.]