They walked for a while, occasionally talking to one another, but it was never awkward or uncomfortable. And before long a camp came into sight and Bucky paused. "That's Home Base." He said with pride then his expression faltered. "Steve, I should warn you. When we enter the grounds my program will be… well, reset. I'll still know you and remember what happened, except for the stuff we aren't supposed to talk about like story arcs."
Steve frowned but nodded. "But you'll remember the rest?" He asked and Bucky nodded, offering a warm smile.
"Yes. Now come on." Bucky tapped him on the shoulder with his knuckles before he stepped past. "Let's go make a ruckus." He sounded far too excited by the prospect and Steve couldn't help following him as he led them up to the base. As soon as they entered he got another quest popup; 'Congratulations, you've completed stage two of The POW quest storyline, Return to Base, and received the following rewards.'
But Steve was far more interested in what was happening around them. There were a lot of soldiers around wearing complete versions of the tattered one Bucky wore. There had to be a few NPCs mixed into the crowd, but the only way Steve could really tell the difference was because they all seemed to know Bucky while the others didn't. And because the players seemed to be more interested in him than in Bucky.
For a few minutes, it was a mess. Everyone was trying to ask them questions, shouting over one another, but they cleared a path to allow a man to walk up to them. He had more decorations on his uniform and it was obvious enough that he was higher up the chain. Bucky saluted him, confirming Steve's suspicion. "Glad to have you back, Sergeant Barnes." The man said.
"Glad to be back, colonel." Bucky answered brightly. Steve caught the flicker of silver in the colonel's eyes that confirmed he was an NPC.
"You two need to come with me for a debrief." The colonel ordered. Thankfully everyone around them let Steve and Bucky follow the man through the crowd without trying to stop them. Once they moved inside a large tent, the outside sounds vanished to almost nothing in a way that wasn't totally natural. There was a table with a map on it and some chairs, but only one other occupant. A beautiful woman in the same brown military uniform as everyone else with curly shoulder-length brown hair and bright red lips.
"Alright, Sergeant, why don't you fill us in on everything you know?" The colonel asked and Bucky started talking. Steve was entirely caught up in listening to him as he talked about Azzano and pointed out the other HYDRA bases he'd discovered on the map. Once they were done Colonel Chester Phillips, whose name Steve had picked up earlier, turned to him.
"Alright, Captain. You can accept or not, but it's only fair I offer you the chance to wipe out these bases first." Colonel Phillips said and Steve nodded.
"I'd love to." He agreed, only realizing after that Phillips had called him 'captain' and the Colonel actually smiled for the first time.
"You'll need a team. We can help put one together or you can choose one of your own." Peggy Carter reminded.
"I can do that." Steve said and she nodded.
"Excellent, then just come see me as soon as you're ready to go after the first base." Colonel Phillips said and finally he and Bucky were allowed to leave.
The excitement had died down a bit outside, but there was still an excited buzz in the air and a number of people looked in their direction with awe filled eyes. Bucky nodded at him to follow and led them through the camp to a tent. They both went inside and Bucky flopped onto one of two cots in the room. Steve chuckled.
"Tired?" He asked and Bucky shrugged.
"A bit." He sat up as Steve took a seat on the other bed. There was a ding, followed by a popup that said 'Would you like to claim this bed?'. He tapped yes and the ding came again as the popup disappear. And then Bucky spoke. "So, are we heading out right away?"
Steve almost said yes, but then he remembered he was supposed to be meeting Sam at some point, probably soon, and shouldn't start something like that just yet. "No. Soon though." He said and Bucky nodded before he fell back on the bed.
"I'm just going to take a nap, then. Wake me up when you're ready to go." Bucky requested before he curled up and moments later was asleep. Steve spent a few moments marveling about it before there was another ding, this time different from the mission notifications ding but still a system notification of some kind.
Opening his menu he saw he had an incoming call from Sam. When he tapped accept it opened up to a video feed that showed Sam's avatar. It startled Steve for a moment and apparently Sam was surprised too given how they both just silently stared at one another for several seconds. Finally Sam nodded. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to look different, but I really should have. Anyway, hi, Steve!" Sam said and Steve smiled.
"Hi Sam." He replied.
"Welcome to Redemption. Enjoying it so far?" Sam asked and Steve nodded.
"A lot more than I expected." He admitted and Sam laughed.
"Alright, well, where are you?" Sam asked.
"Uh, I think it's called Home Base? In the War Zone?" Steve answered and Sam looked once again surprised.
"How'd you end up there? Wait, never mind, tell me later. You should come join us if you aren't in the middle of something." Sam requested and Steve nodded.
"I can do that. Well… you'll have to tell me how to do that. But I can do that." Steve admitted and Sam laughed.
He moved, doing something on his menu, before another popup appeared. 'Falcon has sent you an invite to join him.' "There, just accept and you'll teleport to us." Sam said. Steve glanced at Bucky, still sound asleep, before he hit accept. Just like after the character creation the world flashed white and then he found himself standing in a lounge.
Sam, or Sam's avatar, was standing nearby. He had kept most of his actual traits, just like Steve had, except for the pair of brown wings on his back (no doubt styled after a falcon) and different clothes. He smiled when Steve appeared but that smile changed to amazement. "Dang Steve! How tall are you?"
Steve chuckled to himself because he really was big. It hadn't seemed that way around Bucky, but around Sam he felt so very tall. It was different, but not a bad thing. "Uh, 6 foot 2." He answered and Sam whistled.
"You look like you could bench press a tank." Sam declared and Steve laughed.
"I might be able to. The class stats said I was super strong, but I haven't really tested it." Steve offered and Sam just laughed.
"Alright, well, welcome to the Avengers lounge. It's for guild members and friends only. Let me introduce everyone." Sam pointed towards a woman in black with red hair. "Natasha, goes by Black Widow. Clint, called Hawkeye. And you know Bruce, but his username is Hulk." Sam finished up.
Bruce was the only one Steve had seen who was bigger than him. He was green and muscular and Steve's head just about reached his shoulder. It was a strange contrast to Bruce's real frame (he was only a little bigger than Steve in real life but still shorter than most). "Hello, Steve." Bruce said and Steve smiled at him.
"Hey, Bruce. Your avatar look good." He said and Bruce smiled.
"Thank you. So does yours." Bruce replied.
"And it's nice to meet everyone." Steve added as he smiled at the others around the room, who waved at him. "Where's Tony?" Steve asked and Sam shrugged.
"Running late, no doubt. Now tell me what you were doing in the War Zone." Sam insisted and Steve laughed.
"Well, I ended up there by accident. I was supposed to go to the tutorial but I…" Before Steve could finish a white light appeared in the room.
It didn't last long and then Tony was there in the room with them. He looked much like he did in real life but had on an outfit that would probably never have been possible with the way the metal parts hung off his body seemingly unattached to anything. And before Steve could even say 'hello' Tony was talking. "Oh my god! Have you guys seen the news?!" He asked loudly.
"No, what news?" Clint asked from his seat on the couch.
Tony typed on the air for a moment (interacting with his menu probably, but Steve couldn't see it) and an image appeared in front of the man. It looked like a newspaper, called The War, and the front page article was titled 'Sergeant James Barnes, Rescued from Azzano'. Steve blinked a few times as everyone in the room got up and gathered around it.
Sam was the first to speak with an incredulous "Seriously? Who? How?"
"Doesn't say. I got it pretty much the moment I logged in so it was like a half hour ago at most. But he's been rescued and gotten safely back to the Home Base. But you can bet whoever did it is pretty proud because now the War will move forward." Tony said.
Sam was pouting, Natasha looked fascinated, and Clint was grumbling under his breath about "I didn't even get a chance to try the mission…"
Steve swallowed and said "Um, it this really that big a deal?"
Tony's head snapped to look at him and his mouth was hanging open. "Do you really not know about this, Steve?" He asked and Steve shook his head. "Okay, brief lore lesson time. The world is split into two major sections. The peaceful lower half, where most players spend their time, and the War Zone, where players work together to fight HYDRA and 'keep it from infiltrating the rest of the world'. It's the primary story of the game. When Redemption first began everyone was told that the first step in taking down HYDRA permanently was rescuing Sergeant James Barnes from the Azzano Base in the War Zone. People have been trying forever just to get into the base, but no one has even seen Barnes. And now that he's been rescued that quest is forever completed. No one will ever be able to do it again. So whoever managed it is going to be a legend." Tony explained.
Steve couldn't help coughing a little as he looked away and he felt the weight of both Sam and Tony's looks. Finally he looked up to see every eye in the room on him. "That might have been me." He finally admitted. There was a beat of perfectly still silence before Steve couldn't stand it and started talking. "It was kind of an accident. I had just finished making my character and was supposed to go to the tutorial but I ended up in Azzano instead. Bucky ran into me and we got out and we went back to Home Base together." Steve said.
Sam's jaw could not hang open any further and Tony's mouth was opening and closing like a fish without making any noise. "Are you kidding me?" Clint finally declared loudly and Steve grinned sheepishly. "You're even on nickname basis with him?"
"Uh, yes. Actually, I didn't even know he was an NPC at first. I thought he was a player. He just seemed so real. The AI in this game is incredible." Steve said and Tony nodded.
"I would hope so, considering I had a hand in writing it. But that's besides the point. Did you really rescue Barnes before you'd even completed the tutorial?" Tony asked. Steve pulled up his menu and showed them the two completed missions. Clint immediately burst into laughter, Sam was still pouting, and Tony just looked amazed. "Well. Aside from the bug sending you to the wrong place I'd say you've had an exciting first day." Tony finally said and Steve laughed.
"Very. Thank you guys for convincing me to play." Steve said with a smile of his own. He was really looking forward to coming back and completing more missions with Bucky, and hopefully with everyone else too.