Chapter 2

"And he had no idea what happened?" Sam questioned.

The entire team was in a room where their mission debriefings were held. Tony, Bucky, and Natasha had just returned ten minutes ago from the bank robber and had called for a team meeting. In the past few minutes they had filled everyone in on what they had witnessed. Right away questions were flying and minds were turning with possible answers to what happened.

"None at all," Bucky replied. "I'm not entirely sure what happened."

"What was a little odd was that he was basically as strong as Bucky. Like he was a super soldier," Natasha added.

"A new super soldier?" Steve questioned, sitting up at the edge of his chair. His face scrunched up as he thought over the information.

"Yeah well Clyde isn't a super soldier anymore," Tony spoke up. "Once we knocked him down and the cops got a hold of him, he didn't even try putting up a fight."

"That was when he lost his memory?" Bruce asked, looking between the three who went on the mission.

"Yeah," Nat nodded.

"Well, I got some good news for you guys," Tracey said as she walked into the room, laptop in her hands. "I got a name for our John Doe." She took a seat between Bucky and Sharon and turned the laptop so the screen was facing the group. "I took a picture of him from the news today and put it through a facial recognition program and found a match." She clicked on an image and the red haired man's face popped up on the screen.

"Grayson O'Neil?" Clint read off. "What's on him?"

"There's nothing much. He lives in Queens and works at a construction firm."

"That's it?" Sharon asked, leaning over to peer at the computer.

"Yeah, but here's the thing," Tracey continued, turning her computer back around to face her. She clicked on a few keys before speaking again. "He's on a missing person report. He's been missing for over a month."

"You're kidding," Sam exclaimed, walking over to read for himself.

"Missing or not, I'd like to know why he was able to keep up with Bucky during the fight," Steve said. "How was he as strong as him?"

"I'm not sure about that either," Tracey said. "Especially since he looked like this before he went missing." She showed the team a picture she pulled up onto the screen of a smaller, less bulky version of Grayson O'Neil. Next to him was a picture of him from the bank robbery.

"That's a huge difference," Tony commented. "He looks like Grandpa before the super soldier serum. But a little bigger."

Steve rolled his eyes and turned back to the computer. "That is strange…"

"Do you think it has something to do with what we saw after he was taken away?" Bucky asked Nat.

"It could," the red haired woman replied.

"What did you guys see?" Clint asked, leaning his cheek against his hand.

"When the man was arrested, Natasha and I both saw something jump, fly, I'm not sure, off of him," Bucky answered. "I didn't really see what it was but I know it came off of him."

"Do you think it has something to do with his memory loss?" Thor inquired.

"You're guess is as good as ours, Hammer Time," Tony said, shaking his head. "But it's probably our best bet."

"That just leaves the next question," Tracey said.

"What happened to him while he was missing?" Sam continued.

ooOOoo

"Sir," a man in a dark uniform said, rushing into the room. He stopped in the middle of the room before a table where a dark haired man sat, fiddling with trinkets on the table.

The second man glanced up, not lifting his head. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the man. Lowering the objects in his hands onto the table he sat up straight, never breaking his eye contact with the first man.

"I'm in the middle of something. This better be important," he spoke calmly.

"Sir, test subject two has been released," the first man informed. "He's being held in jail at this very moment."

The second man sighed and gestured to the object on the table. He grabbed it as he stood up, making his way to the man, and held it up in his face. "You think I don't know that?" he yelled. "This returned before you could even learn the whereabouts of the test subject! This is more reliable than you! I expect you to be able to reliable and quicker when it comes to information such as this."

"I'm sorry, sir," the uniformed man said.

The dark haired man sighed once more, placing the object back onto the table. He rubbed at his temples. "Here's a task that you can hopefully handle. Find me another test subject. The last two were failures clearly. I need to test these new enhancements if I'm going to get this right."

"Right away, sir," the man said, rushing out the door.

The second man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He stared down at the object in front of him and picked it up. Staring at it and turning every which way he sighed. "This needs to work," he said, placing the item onto the table. He picked up a tool and began taking it apart. Poking and pulling at wires and metal on the object. He ran a hand through his hair, groaning. "This has to work."

ooOOoo

Tracey stared from the kitchen where she was cooking to Bucky where he sat in the living. She chewed her cheek, feeling the tension in the air. She placed the spoon in her hand and made her way to her boyfriend.

"Are you worried about what happened on the mission?" she ask as she sat down next to the super soldier.

Bucky continued to stare ahead of him, like he always did when something was on his mind and he was focused on it. His brow furrowed as he stared out the window. "I am."

"Do you want to talk about it?" the hacker asked, placing a hand on his arm. The metal felt cool against her hands, cooling down her fingers after standing over the steaming pot on the stove. She leaned her head up and kissed his jaw, resting her head against his shoulder. "I know you. You always feel better when we talk."

The dark haired man sighed, turning his head to his girlfriend. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, rubbing his thumb against her arm absentmindedly.

"I'm confused," he finally spoke.

"About how he lost his memory?" the blonde woman questioned.

"Yeah…" He ran a hand through his hair. "I want to know how he lost his memory. How can one man who broke into a bank by busting a hole in the wall and fighting the three of us not remember anything? How can he forget all of that?"

"I'm not sure…" Tracey responded, taking his other hand in hers. "We've all seen plenty of strange things before. Let's not forget Tony's experiment that stained Steve's skin purple for a week."

Bucky chuckled. "Yeah I remember that." He looked down at their hands and began playing with Tracey's fingers. "I just don't get it…"

Tracey stared up at him as he continued to stare at their hands. She chewed her cheek. "There's something else bothering you, isn't there?"

Bucky sighed, nodding his head. "It's the fact that he was able to keep up with me. Sure I've face plenty of guys who could keep up with Steve and I during missions. But those guys were no match for this guy. The thought of this O'Neil guy being another super soldier is worrying. How did he get that way? What happened to him? Where did he go while he was missing?"

"I wish I could answer those questions," Tracey said, staring at their hands too. She laced her fingers with Bucky's after letting him fiddle with her fingers some more. "But that's why we have everyone. We're all curious as to what happened. We're all searching for answers. We'll find them. We always do."

Bucky turned his head to stare at Tracey. A fond smile formed on his lips as he looked at his girl. "You might not have exact answers to the questions, but you always have an answer."

"Well I have to help you guys out somehow," she laughed. "What would you guys do without me?"

"Mm, I'm not sure," he laughed, kissing her cheek. "We'd be running around with no way of getting information."

"Exactly," she said, leaning into him. She kissed his cheek before standing up. "I've got to finish dinner before it burns."

Bucky squeezed her shoulders in a quick hug before releasing her. "Thanks, doll."

"Anytime, Sergeant," she said, giving him a wink as she walked back to the stove.

She smiled over at Bucky as he turned the TV on, distracting himself from the latest mission. Stirring the contents in the pot quickly, she turned to behind her and grabbed her laptop. Pulling up the files from today's meeting she brought up the files on Grayson O'Neil. Her eyes scanned across the screen, flicking from one document to an image and so forth. As she moved from an image to another one, she did a double take. She looked back at the previous video, the security footage of Grayson O'Neil from the bank today, and narrowed her eyes. She paused the video and double clicked the image, enlarging it. It was an image of him with his back to the camera as he stood in the vault. She stared at the back of his head, squinting as she stared at the fuzzy image. She moved her hands across the keyboard, hitting a few keys, and quickly enhanced the photo. As the image cleared up, the hacker furrowed her brow as she stared at the man. She tilted her head as she caught sight of something on him.

"Hey, Bucky," she called out. "Can you come here?" she said after she heard the super soldier hum in reply.

"What's up, darling?" he asked, walking up next to her.

"You said you ad Nat saw something fly off of the guy when the cops got him, right?" she asked, glancing up at him.

"Yeah." His brow furrowed. "Trace, what did you find?" he asked, looking at her computer screen.

"Did it look anything like this?" she asked, pointing to Grayson O'Neil's neck.

Bucky leaned forward, examining the picture. His brow furrowed before his eyes widened slightly. On the back of the man's neck was what looked to be a bug. More importantly a robotic bug. The legs of the bug seemed to be dug into the back of his neck, as if holding on for dear life. The skin around the bug seemed to have veins bulging out; they were bright blue.

"What the hell is that?" the super soldier said, more to himself than to Tracey.

"Do you think that has anything to do with his memory loss or even his super soldier qualities?" the blonde woman asked.

Bucky stood up straight and grabbed her laptop. He ignored Tracey's shout of complaint as he headed towards the elevator.

"Bucky!" Tracey shouted as she quickly shut the stove off. She rushed over to the super soldier, glaring at him as she reached the elevator with him. "Where are you going?"

"We need to show this to everyone," he said, his voice conveying a firm tone. His face showed a serious and determined look as he got onto the elevator. "Jarvis, call everyone to the meeting room."

"Right away, Sergeant Barnes," came the AI's voice.

"Give me that," Tracey grumbled as she took her laptop from his hands. "You could say something before you storm off with my things," she teased, trying to lighten the mood.

It didn't work. Bucky stared at the metal doors with his arms folded across his chest as he waited for the elevator to stop. Tracey chewed her cheek as she stared up at her boyfriend. His mind was set on the matter at hand like he always was when it came to a mission.

Hey everyone! Here's chapter two! I hope you like it! Sorry it's not as long as the first chapter, but I tried my best. I got stuck with what else to write. I'm also going to be stuck on chapter three so that chapter will take a while to write out. I'm doing my best to get these chapters up for you, but I can't guarantee quick updates like I did with Winter is Ending. This one has more plot to it that I am still figuring out compared to the first story. So I hope you can bear with me.

If you'd like to Ask the Avengers, Madison twins, or anyone else in the tower a question, feel free to leave a message on my tumblr. If you have a prompt for Life at the Tower, feel free to leave a message on my tumblr, PM me here, or leave it in a review.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorite, and followed! I'm glad you like it so far. This one I'm really excited and nervous about writing because I have ideas that I want to write out, but I'm also nervous that it won't be as good as Winter is Ending. I'd appreciate any critiques and helpful tips if anyone has any