Hi there, Happy Easter! Sorry this took a few days, I had most of it done on Friday but got caught up in holiday planning. Also, I finally picked up Ed Brubaker's Captain America comics [i got the ultimate collection] and i am floored by how amazing it is. The Russo's cite this as their biggest influence for TWS movie, and Brubaker was even a writer on it [he also had a cameo has a scientist i believe] Pick it up at your local comic shop if you can. I'm definitely going to be pulling a few elements from that storyline, really fantastic. Thanks for reading! -Laura
He spent most of his time gazing into the distance, with an ever present ghost haunted his face. He was trying to conjure up the memories of his original life while watching the landscape dash by.
Every time they stopped to get gas or stretch their legs on the ride up to New York he would stand as close to the edge of the street. Arianna watched him, preparing herself to swoop in and dissuade him from doing something irrational. She had watched him from afar fight Captain America and she knew he was capable of almost anything. She's sacrifice herself for it.
For Hydra, Arianna was nothing more than a guinea pig. She was an expendable part of their research for the copy-cat serum of Dr. Erksine's successful one. They pushed her off buildings, dragged her from moving cars, and subjected her to some of the world's worst incurable viruses. They had done all of this in the year before they injected Bucky with it. They were ready to create their own super soldier but they lacked one key element. The advanced brain-washing techniques developed by the Soviets.
Hydra never brain-washed Arianna. They never saw a point to it, she was stronger than all of them, but controlled and manipulated as a prisoner.
When Hydra had learned their little experimentation had been picked up by the Soviets, they needed to find a way to get him back. The Soviets were responsible for taking over his mind; Hydra had just taken over his body. And then Hydra did what they were really good at.
"I knew him," he would say every one in awhile, letting the words stumble off his tongue. His eyes, slivered, trying to glean why.
Arianna would continue watching the road. She bit her own tongue. But she really wanted to say something back to him.
You knew me too.
Steve was less than thrilled about the confrontation with Tony. He left the Stark Tower with a bad feeling in his gut. Sam, on the other hand, seemed very complacent carrying out his new hardware. It was a nice gesture, especially since other than Sam's friendship, his mobility in the Falcon suit was at the helm of their tag-team success. It reminded Steve how nice it was to not have to go through something alone. Because there were so few incidents in Steve's life that people could relate to.
Steve and Sam were at a crossroads on where to go next. They were hunted men hunting another. With Sam at the wheel, Steve instructed him to cross the East River into his old hometown: Brooklyn.
Brooklyn was a different breed than when Steve grew up during the Depression. Some parts were full of culture and progression and other areas were beleaguered with drugs and crime. In essence it was his home, but he never truly felt like he belonged here once he came back to life. There were scratch marks on the walls of memories he didn't want to revisit. Most of them were from great times, but they left Steve depressed. A longing to turn back the time to simpler times. He had to remind himself the present day could be simple too, if only he let everything from the past go.
But he couldn't, not with Bucky being alive. Peggy was on her deathbed and Bucky was the only remains from a time he knew how to live in.
The eerie remnants of his past flickered through his head as Sam darted down one-ways and circled the old neighborhoods. Steve and Bucky used to play baseball in the middle of the streets with the other kids, now kids couldn't even cross them alone without being struck down by a car. After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, Sam parked the car by the East River State Park.
Steve left the car to sit on a bench under a tree. Joggers passed by without a glance. He gazed at the skyline. Scaffolding lined the sides of skyscrapers all across the lower east side of Manhattan, but the Stark tower stood in the center, with its obnoxious 'A' lit up in blue.