Dennisson's Base

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?!" Dennisson was screaming so loudly Morris could hear him from the front door. He rolled his eyes and went in to see what the issue was. As soon as he took the stairs to the lower levels he was jumped by Dennisson, "WHAT DID YOU DO YOU WORM?"

Morris was pinned against the wall, high enough up that his feet dangled off the floor, "Where is who?" he choked on the words.

Dennisson slammed him against the wall again, "WHERE DID YOU TAKE THE WINTER SOLDIER?!"

"I DIDN'T TAKE HIM ANYWHERE," Morris got a gulp of air and managed to get out something resembling a shout.

"HE IS NO LONGER IN THIS FACILITY, I KNOW YOU DON'T APPROVE OF HOW I AM PROCEEDING, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM!" Dennisson was crazed.

"I DIDN'T TOUCH HIM!" Morris leveled a kick to Dennisson's groin and was dropped. He tried to stand up but Dennisson's fist slammed into the side of his head.

He pulled Morris' head back by his hair and hissed in his ear, "Tell me what you did with the Winter Soldier or I swear to god-"

"I didn't do anything to him!" Morris gasped, "I don't know where he is!"

"LIAR!" Dennisson slammed his fist into the side of Morris' head to punctuate each word "TELL. ME. WHERE. HE. IS."

Morris couldn't answer. Not with half his brains smashed into the concrete flooring. Dennisson stood up and spat on the body, "Worthless simp!"

He turned around and found Icer (as he'd named the man) behind him, looking at the body. Dennisson sneered, "Tell the others to start getting ready. It's time we slaughter the Avengers once and for all." he bent down and rummaged through Morris' pockets until he found his burner phone. He tossed that to Icer as well, "And call Tyson. Tell him I have a special job for him."

Avengers Tower

Clint poked at Bucky's newly grown flesh and shivered, "What does that even feel like?"

"He can't answer," Natasha had plastic gloves on and was using a make-up sponge to smooth out thin sheets of activated synthetic skin to Bucky's facial burns. After a few minutes she gave the boys the go-ahead to talk as she finished up with the back of his neck.

"It feels... cold. And it's over-sensitive," he shivered in the cool air, "like the skin between your toes."

Natasha nodded as she finished up, "You'll have to re-form callouses."

"Eew," Clint thought of something, "Re-growing body hair. Itchy."

"Bet it beats reattaching a leg," Natasha scratched at her pale shin, just beneath the gold band, "it's all pins and needles."

"Yes, but we get to see you in a skirt," Clint smiled like a bratty child. Natasha carefully removed her gloves, then kicked his foot out from under him and he went tumbling to the floor, "Help," he cried out in an old-man voice, "I've fallen and I can't get up! On second thought," he gave Natasha's skirt a significant glance, "leave me here, I like the view."

Bucky chuckled. He was feeling better, now that the burns were sealed up, and he just really needed to laugh at something. When he worked up the courage, he spoke what was on his mind, "Did you get anything from the files?" If they said no- if it wasn't all for something... Bucky wasn't sure he could handle that right now.

Clint and Natasha sobered up fairly quickly. They had already discussed how much to tell him, "We got a lead- the frequency Hydra pumped into the room. We're hoping it might be useful against the Shadow. Maybe trap it somehow. If the alpha, silver-eyes, can be caught, maybe the others won't be able to come through."

"That's good," Bucky's spirits did lift slightly, "And Inessa? Did you find out anything about who she was?"

Natasha shook her head and finished up the last of the treatment, "We've got no leads there. The 'Project: Echo' file was useless." He couldn't know about Nikolai Ryker or Dimitri Aristov. Besides, it was a dead end. The man's mind was soup. JARVIS had combed through his history and found, literally, nothing. Hydra may have kept tabs on his location in the files, but they erased him from everywhere else.

Bucky accepted what they told him, "We have to keep looking," he prompted, "a kid doesn't vanish off the streets without at least someone noticing. If we capture Dennisson I swear to god I'll make him speak."

There it was- precisely what Natasha was worried about and just what Thor had warned Steve against the day he brought Bucky into the Tower- a darkness that, if left to fester, could destroy everything he was trying to build here.

Bucky was done forcing himself to be the guy Hydra captured all those decades ago. Intentional or not, he was slowly reviving the Winter Soldier.

Banner was on duty watching Inessa in Natasha's apartment. Simmons had sent an email that morning saying her most recent blood samples were almost completely clear of the toxin, so they were all hopeful she'd make some big breakthrough in her recovery- which at this point pretty much meant blinking out of rhythm. Thor sat in the armchair across from her, watching the Astana surveillance. It helped to be in the room with her- in a strange way. When the videos became too much he could look up, see her, and remind himself that the girl was safe now, in good hands.

"Why are you still putting yourself through that?" Banner asked at last.

Thor pulled out his headphones and scratched at his ears, "I want to find the day James spoke of- when he tried to escape with her. He thought it was within the first year."

"Checking out the teleportation?"

There was a pause while Thor tried to decide how to respond, "I wish to- Something doesn't-" he shook his head, frustrated, "I do not know what I am looking for, to be honest with you."

Banner looked over at Inessa himself, "I know what you mean. It seems-"

"It seems as if we are looking at two things, not merely one."

"I've been thinking the same thing," he closed his book and looked back to Thor, "Teleportation is great and all, and Bucky said they wanted her to be a spy, I get where it would come in handy, but... Two years. They tried for two years. How long would-"

He trailed off and Thor took over, "Asgard has never condoned the torture or conversion of our enemies," he prefaced, "but some of those we tenuously call allies have. From what I have learned and observed from our own people enslaved by the Jotun, there is a point where any torturer knows if the person will break or not. It is rare in children as young as she was, but some will allow themselves to lose their own minds, become-" he gestured to Inessa,"as she is. Even for the races who live thousands of years that point is within only a few weeks."

Banner nodded, "They knew they couldn't make her Hydra, but they kept going. Why."

"That is but the first piece," Thor spun the tablet around so Banner could see the paused image of Bucky preparing his tools, "The Winter Soldier was very important to Hydra, correct?"

"According to their files he was probably their most valuable weapon."

"Why waste him on a project for so long they knew would fail? And why keep the girl alive once it failed?"

"You're missing something," Banner pointed out, "If the Winter Soldier is pulled in on this thing, why leave the recruiting up to a rampant drunk?"

Thor rubbed his eyes and looked back at the image, "On the one hand, we have a project that seems to be the most important thing Hydra is working on, yet many details would fit only a small project, a mere curiosity."

"And you think seeing Bucky try to escape with Inessa will give you some kind of clue?" Banner prompted.

"It is the only thing we have yet to examine."

Banner sighed, "That, my friend, is what we call grasping at straws."

Over dinner the Avengers began sorting out battle plans.

"What can you tell us about Dennisson?" Steve asked over lasagna.

Bucky shrugged, picking at his food, "He's unhinged, I'm pretty sure he's losing control. He hinted at having some other Hydra agents there, but I was kept pretty much in the one room so I have no idea how big of a force he has or what their capabilities are."

"How did you get out?" they hadn't asked him that one yet.

"I don't really know," he thought back to what he could remember of the rescue, "I was carried out of the warehouse, but I have no idea by whom. I was fading in and out the entire time."

Tony chose to speak through his food, "Where I grabbed you there were no warehouses, so at some point you were loaded into a car. They put you down somewhere out of sight of any major roads, between two construction sites closed for the weekend," he swallowed, "so whoever it was they wanted to give us our best shot at finding you before anyone else. There was a comm jammer next to you. The release wasn't activated, they just kind of pulled it out. It would take some specialty tools and limited knowledge of how the device worked. Any theories? Someone who was around you more than the others maybe?"

"The only people I saw were Dennisson and his assistant, some mousy guy. I got the impression he wasn't too thrilled with pretty much anything Dennisson was doing, but he wasn't exactly disturbed by what he was doing to me either."

Steve made a mental note, "If there is dissent in his camp, maybe we can exploit it. Any attack we stage on his facility has to be fast, so he doesn't have time to activate any more devices in the Tower. That being said, something tells me he will strike first," he hesitated, "Clint, I know it's not ideal, but I think you should stay behind with Inessa, no matter which scenario plays out."

Clint was stunned, "What? Why!"

"If Dennisson attacks us or if we attack him there is a risk he will power down Avengers Tower and the Shadow will attack. Someone needs to be here to keep Inessa safe, we can't let it get hold of her and, if Tony's frequency works or just pisses it off, you're the only one- I mean-"

"I'm the only deaf one," Clint was pissed, "You do realize that means I can't hear the comms either? I wouldn't have any idea of what is going on and you can't call me in if there is an emergency. It's a shit plan. Leave Tony behind, he'll have the helmet on, he can tune out the audio."

"We'll need Tony to fight-"

"What, and you don't need me?"

"Clint-" Natasha needed to diffuse the situation.

Sam looked around uncomfortably, "I can stay. I mean, of all of us I'm the closest to a civilian. I can watch Inessa, keep my ears plugged up, and we don't loose much on the fighting front."

Steve shook his head, "First off, you're hardly close to a civilian, you're an incredible fighter. Second," he turned back to Clint, "I'm sorry but yeah, you're deaf. You spent how many years in complete silence? If someone gets into the Tower you'll be able to tell. You could tell the Shadow was here before anyone even came close to seeing it. Clint, we don't just need someone who can't hear watching the Tower. We need someone who has had practice and training fighting one sense down, and that's you."

Clint wouldn't let it go, "What about a remote suit? Or Bucky? He's hardly fit to fight a cold!"

"When the power went out, those suits were next to useless. Don't argue Stark," Steve didn't want to hear Tony trying to talk with his mouth full (again), "-and Bucky's in because he's the only one of us who's seen Dennisson's face on something other than an old video."

"Dress it up however you want, it's just you giving a spot on the team to your buddy. It's favoritism."

"It's strategy Clint. I need you in the field, just like we needed you when the Chit'auri attacked, but we can't fight a two-front war, and if the Shadow gets Inessa, that's exactly what will happen." Clint started to speak again, "I'm sorry," Steve cut him off before he got a word out, "but that's how it has to be."

There was silence at the table for a bit, then Clint got up abruptly, flipping his chair as he did so, "Clint-" Natasha reached out to him but he pulled away and stormed off up into the Tower. No one spoke for a long time. Steve shook his head and stared at his food. He wasn't willing to meet anyone's eye. It's the right call, he told himself over and over. Natasha stood up, "I'll go talk to him," she put a hand on Bucky's metal shoulder, "Bucky-"

"Don't worry," he assured her, "I get it. He's pissed. No hard feelings."

She patted his arm and walked off. Banner looked to Inessa, "Now would be a really great time to snap out of it, kid."