The Foxhole Program

by Tori-Da-Mutt

When Hydra Programs go rogue, they have an Asset to bring them in. The Foxhole Program, untouched for over thirty years, has a new assignment, and it does not fail. [Post-TWS, Bucky is on the run, Steve and friends are looking for him, and the Foxhole Asset is after them both.] Or, the time I made another story when I had ten others in progress.

8. Chapter 8

wow. i've been gone a while, yeah? I don't have any excuses. I mean my depression got p bad along the way, but. yeah. sorry.
also oh my god thank you to everyone who didn't just completely GIVE UP ON ME IM SORRY

The female was trained. Intensively, in fact possibly in a similar manner to the standard training Fox and Soldier assets had received before being cleared for use. It was easy to detect; she tried to walk "pretty," like a civilian, but her footing was too steady. Too precisely casual. And her neck was tense, belaying the tension in other major muscle groups. She hadn't let her guard down since the assets had entered the building. She was always ready for a fight to break out. Idly, Fox ran calculations on a fight between them; results inconclusive.

The male, however, was decidedly not trained- or, if he was, then in a very casual form of it. He talked a lot, though, even as he walked, leading the group through the labyrinth of hallways, and it made the tension in his frame stand out, his gait awkward and long like he was forcing himself not to move slowly. Fear, it assumed rather confidently. Not an unusual reaction to the presence of as asset, but in this case, unnecessary. The other asset was also tense- shoulders drawn tight, thighs twitching. A flight-leaning sympathetic response. Fox itself was, in fact, the only one not ready for a fight. As it was under orders not to engage even if attacked first, there was no need.

Secondary systems were still active, including a mapping subroutine tracking the way out and a battle-prep that was analyzing everything in the environment for potential battle use and hazard, when the male stopped, turned to a wall panel and waved at it until it slid open- a hidden door. It made note and added possible locations of similar rooms to the map in its hard drive.

"If there's one thing Hydra did half-decent on, its technology and biomechanics. Not as good as what I could do, but good enough that I'm very excited to get a good up-close-and-personal look at it." He babbled on as he gestured for them to follow him in. Soldier went first, and the female made no move to enter herself, so Fox moved forward. It had barely gotten a step into the room when a sudden glitch sent a jolt through its systems. Its frame locked up, no longer responding to directions, and then the lab was gone, replaced with a grainy video clip.

She was breathing fast, too fast, but she was so scared, so utterly terrified that she couldn't even summon the idea of slowing it down. There were soldiers- not real soldiers, she refused to believe these were the men defending her country, but they walked like them and acted like them- Four soldiers, one holding each of her limbs and carrying her like a carcass as she thrashed. She screamed at them, but her throat hurt so so bad, and it was barely an airy breath. It did more damage to her than to them, and once they'd slammed her on a metal slab and tightened straps down so much she could barely feel her fingers, one of them wrenched her jaw open as wide as it would go so another could shove a rubber bit in her mouth.

It was suffocating her even before the men in labcoats came, snapping orders to secure her more- tight straps on her ribs, her shoulders, her hips and knees, then her head, trapping her face against the icy steel so she couldn't even wiggle. Or maybe it was just the fear that was choking her, the fear of this place, of the pain she knew they would bring, of when they would finally end it all and just kill her, let her die instead of dragging her out when she'd nearly lost her mind and hurting her again-

They closed in on her, drawing on her shaved head and arguing over her face, ignoring her half-hearted whimpers and whines. At the sound of something whirring noisily, she struggled again, the last dregs of a near constant adrenaline rush. All it earned her was an elbow to the sternum and the loss of any breath she could have screamed with as a circular bone saw revved near her ear and bit into her temple, cutting into her skin, into the bone, sending blood into her eyes and over her face-

My name is Alice. I was born in Albany, New York, and I've been kidnapped by some government team for- I don't know what.

My name is Alice.

My name

::Oxygen intake insufficient. Increase ventilations immediately.::

It sucked in a massive breath the same instant the notification appeared on it's HUD, and another glitch sent its systems haywire, throwing it back into the hallway and clear into the wall, where it slid to the floor, ventilating rapidly and running an emergency systems check to reactivate it's navigational systems. Visuals reset first, showing the other asset crouched in front of it like a guard with some mock-up of concern on it's face. Next came gyroscopics, stopping it's frantic grasp on the floor to keep it steady, then directional alignment, and audio(the male was still babbling, and the voice from the elevator adding commentary- what sounded like vital signs). Last to online was motion control, cleared of coding mishaps, but it didn't test that analysis just yet.

The other asset was speaking. It reset audio again to make out the words. "-hear me? Fox- Can you hear me? Respond!"

"Affirmative." It's optics flickered about, noting the changes in the environment- the female was watching them cautiously, back almost touching the wall opposite them. The male was in the lab, gesturing wildly as he spoke to the voice from the elevator. "Forced System Reset initiated. Cause unknown."

Soldier tensed visibly. "Is there any possibility it could have been Hydra?"

"Negative. No signals received or sent. Cause: Internal."

The same tension disintegrated and it's shoulders slouched just an inch. "Are you alright?"

Without pause, Fox brought up a status window on it's HUD and read it off, finishing with "All Systems within normal ranges."

Soldier nodded, seemingly fixated on Fox's right eye. "What happened?" It started to repeat the earlier diagnosis- Forced system reset with unknown cause- but Soldier flapped it's hand. "Not that, I mean in your head. What happened? What did you see? What did you remember?"

Fear Yellow Pain "No memories recovered."

There was a pause, then- "Is it like what happened in the woods?"

It's vision filled with static for a moment,(fear choking pain) and it flinched backwards, blinking. "Yes."

Soldier sighed, then offered it a hand up. "Come on. Stark needs to get to work on that tech before Hydra finds us." It accepted the assistance and, once it was sure it was steady, moved into the lab. There was no jolt to its systems this time, only a vague sense of foreboding, and it followed Stark's directions to stand in a certain area.

"Alright, before we get started, I need to know about trackers. Anything on you putting out a signal, receiving a signal, or potentially will put out a signal?" Stark eyed both assets as he talked, waving his hands to bring up a holographic display in front of them.

Soldier looked to Fox. "No trackers Currently active. Three inactive chips installed, one issued but not present. Locations; Boot Insert track chip, requires manual activation, for use in emergency where asset is damaged beyond ability to complete an assignment or unable to reach extraction point. Subdermal Pelvic track chip, activated remotely by handlers and superiors with authorization codes, for use if asset does not report at designated checkpoint. Scapular intraosseous track chip, activated remotely by superiors with authorization code, for use if asset does not report at designated checkpoint and pelvic chip is non responsive. Intracranial HUD chip, intended for use by asset for tracking, mapping, navigation, and timekeeping, but can be accessed remotely in an emergency with authorization."

Stark's eyes lit up, and his face twisted with excitement. "Intracranial HUD? You mean they successfully installed hardware in your brain and you are capable of interacting with it at will?" It nodded, not bothering to correct him- it didn't have a brain, brains were human constructs, but it was close enough regarding function that he obviously understood reasonably well. He smiled wide. "Sounds like a challenge. I love challenges." He waved his hands a bit more, calling out to 'Jarvis' to "take a scan of them both and get ahold of that one doc I like, I know mechanics not biology."

The holographics moved about at his commands, and it assumed that this 'Jarvis' was a sort of working name for the intelligence system he was running- similar to Asset 3's listed title 'Foxhole Program' shortened to a working name of Fox, or Asset 7's 'Winter Soldier Program' shortened to Soldier. A beam of light was emitted from some projector on the ceiling, and a scant few seconds later disappeared and brought up a new hologram shaped similarly to Fox, side-by-side with a figure shaped similarly to Soldier. Stark looked over them both fleetingly and started babbling, talking about biomechanics and neuroreception and throwing out 'holy shit' every now and then. The female stayed near, but out of the way, muscles still coiled like she was ready to pounce.

After about twenty minutes of talking to himself and the AI, and putting up designs on various holoprojectors, another male joined them, this one dressed in scrubs and a white coat. Stark addressed him blandly and they began collaborating, all the while leaving the assets to stand by and wait for further direction. Soldier was restless beside it, constantly shifting it's weight and glancing around or rubbing at something or another. In contrast, Fox stood near perfectly still, only the slight rise and fall of it's thorax breaking it's facade of a statue.

The two men continued to discuss the findings in the scans for nearly an hour before asking for an updated time until checkpoint. Then, finally they turned to face the assets.

"Alright, Bucky-Bear, you seem pretty concerned about the princess here, and it seems that you're in a better place anyways, so we're going to get to work on digging out the trackers first before we try to take a crack at the wires in her head. We're going to need you and Spiderwoman on standby incase some conditioning tries to kick in during the process so us less assassin-y types don't get slammed. Once we get her in the clear, I can take a look at your arm and do what I can for it. Fair?"

Soldier agreed quickly, and the trio had a short, very quiet exchange before they all turned their focus to Fox. The asset stood as still as it had before. Soldier moved to stand directly in front of it, and it lifted its gaze from the neutral point near its clavicle to it's face in acknowledgement. It's face was serious, and when it spoke, so was its tone. "You are not to harm anyone in this building until Stark himself gives you a target-" Here it stumbled, as if it's coding told it not to continue but it did anyways- "Authorization code: Black Light. Acknowledge."

"Affirmative."

"You will follow every direction given to you as immediately as is physically possible until you are authorized otherwise by Stark or Operative Black Widow. Acknowledge."

"Affirmative."

Now the senior asset's voice shook, and it noticed faintly that it's shoulders had gained only the slightest shiver to them. "Any coding that tries to defy the orders I have just given you is not to be followed. If coding directs you to something that defies these orders. You are to initiate immediate shut down. And restart under Docile conditions. Acknowledge."

"Affirmative."

It stared at Fox for a long moment before ordering, "Repeat current assignment."

"Obey all directives given until authorized further autonomy by Operative Black Widow or Stark. Cause no harm to anyone within the compound unless and until specifically directed by Stark with appropriate authorization code. On activation of any coding contradicting these orders initiate immediate shut down set for restart under reprogramming settings. All orders acknowledged and confirmed. Awaiting direction."

Soldier made a face of disgust and turned away. "Get up on the table so they can pull those trackers out."

It obeyed, as directed. Stark and the unnamed doctor shared only a short back and forth before the holographic image similar to Fox appeared again, levitating over the real Fox for a moment before lowering to nearly sit on it's frame like a reference to its insides. In the edge of its vision it caught a glow from lower on it's frame- once the doctor spoke again, it determined it was a guide to where the subdermal tracker was.

"Anesthesia?"

"Won't work," Soldier cut in before Fox had to answer. "She's got an earlier version of the knock-off super-serum I was dosed with. Slightly less upgrades, but it still neutralizes any kind of medication, painkillers, anesthetics and alcohol included."

A noise of irritation, then "I'm going to make an incision on the inside of your pelvic girdle to retrieve the tracker. I need you to keep still as best you can, alright?"

"Affirmative."

A few seconds later, a cold edge pressed into the flesh almost directly over the tracker, a half second later it gave way with a vague sting. A popup flashed on it's HUD warning of damage taken, which was blinked away with passive acknowledgement as it held perfectly still save for it's ventilations. The blade dug in only a few centimeters at a time, until the doctor finally took a pair of forceps into the opening and slowly, carefully worked the tracker out, then just as carefully packed the wound with gauze. The tech clattered a bit when it was dropped into a tin for Stark to take, and a moment later it was directed to sit upright.

"Intraosseous, eh? It won't be fun, but I'll get it out. I'll need you to change out of that top- give me a moment and I'll grab you a gown."

It obeyed silently, taking the bundle of papery disposable coverings and moving off to a designated corner of the lab to pull off the uniform top and undertank, replacing it with the gown, returning to the slab and laying facedown to give the doctor access to the scapula.

Again, he gave a warning before he started, and the vague awareness of damage was punctuated by three separate pop-ups warning it of increasing damage, each of them blinked away as they arrived. It could see Stark poking at the little piece of tech already pulled out- a small, half-inch-square chip, rather like a harddrive piece. He was rigging it to some sort of reader, lines of coding appearing on a nearby screen.

The doctor gave a hard pull, and it's shoulder jerked slightly with the motion. A moment later he gave another pull, and it felt something detach from the scapula. Then pressure was applied to the area, and the second tracker clinked into a tin like the first.

"That's two of three." He wrapped a length of fabric around its shoulder and across its chest and back to keep dressings over the incision, while Stark continued to babble about deprogramming and firewalls. Once both the incisions were dressed to the doctor's satisfaction, it was directed to lie down again.

"So, how did Hydra usually access your HUD? I assume they did interact with it, didn't they?" Stark prodded at a holographic, carrying it over to the side of the slab that it was stationed on.

"Orders delivered wirelessly through Hydra/SHIELD digital mainframe or face-to-face interaction. Maintenance and debugging performed through cranial connection ports. Real-time communication-"

"Wait. Back up." Stark waved his hand, face scrunching in disbelief. "Did I hear that right? Cranial connection port? You have a- a computer connecter hole in your skull?"

It met his gaze evenly, though with a bit of annoyance. It had thought he understood the concept of humanoid mechanisms, but it seemed now that he was operating under the assumption it was actually human. "Affirmative. Programming errors are not uncommon and some system glitches cannot be corrected through system reset and must be debugged or troubleshot manually. Programmers needed easy access to the hard drives without taking the asset completely out of play."

His face twisted again, now looking pursed and unhappy. "...I'm not sure if I'm more impressed or disgusted by this revelation. Where are they?"

It turned it's head to the left, digits of one hand passing through it's hair to push it out of the way while the other hand felt along it's scalp to locate the three ports in line with its optical array. It moved it's hand out of his way when he leaned in to see more clearly, and obediently kept still when he very lightly prodded at them. It was well aware he couldn't damage the ports just poking- several programmers had shoved and smacked them on multiple occasions, and the only damage ever done was when they had disconnected by simply yanking out the cord and causing a cascade failure in its coding that had taken another programmer three hours to sort through and correct. They'd all been very careful to properly close the connection after that incident, and it had operated fairly smoothly ever since.

"This is fucked up. Why didn't you say anything about this?" He sounded honestly offended, and it was briefly uncertain if that had been meant for it to answer, though Soldier replied instead.

"What, you think I know everything they did to her? Was I supposed to do a detailed investigation of all her modifications? Sorry, I was a little busy trying to get us somewhere we wouldn't get captured by what's left of those god damn maniacs!"

Stark huffed but didn't reply, apparently returning to his investigation of the ports. "Looks like a parallel port here… PS/2… a fucking HDMI port. Did these have different purposes?"

"Simple troubleshooting uses PS/2 port to connect to an external computer. HDMI was intended for observation of HUD changes, but can also be used to modify sensory intake displays. Parallel used for large-scale reprogramming efforts."

He made another dissatisfied noise. "...Keep your hair out of the way until we're plugged in."

It stayed there as directed for seventeen minutes while Stark hunted through drawers, making all kinds of ruckus, until he returned with a handful of cords and rolled a computer on a cart closer to the slab. Each cable brought with it a sort of fuzzy, staticky feeling, and it's HUD gave notifications of each connection and asked if it wished to activate firewalls. It responded with denial each time. The room was quiet enough that when the data appeared on the screen it clearly heard them both make noises of amazement. Stark was talking fast again, out of sight now, and it calmly closed every notification window as it opened.

It heard keys tapping, and a small text window opened in the lower edge of it's vision. Can you read this? "Affirmative." More tapping, then- Can you reply on the display?

Affirmative.

"This is Incredible. It's a Miracle. They shouldn't have had the technology to make this happen- trying should have killed her. Just. JARVIS, give me a display of what the inside of her skull looks like. How much tech is in there? What parts of her brain is it replacing or- melted into?"

There was more key tapping, and it felt power being diverted as several systems cycled down to idle- Stark must have accessed its actual programming; security precautions to prevent overheating of it's CPU and to keep any alterations from affecting or being affected by less essential systems running to actively. It's vision dimmed slightly, the HUD gaining solidarity as visual input cycled down as well, and the text window closed out to open instead a coding window. It knew the function of several strings of code as they scrolled past, but much of it had no meaning to it- background operations and functions, GPS, mapping functions, passive situation analysis programming. Stark mumbled, and it registered the exact moment he started trying to alter small sections of code- an alert window opened that took up almost it's entire HUD, and basic system security measures kicked in, throwing up layers of firewall that it had initially deactivated manually. It's frame locked up, and it briefly felt a couple of systems stutter almost into failure they'd cycled through modes so quickly.

Loud noises. Pressure on its thorax, then it's cranium. Visuals cut out entirely, it's HUD throwing up various reports on the status of sensitive information and important flashing windows warning it of an attempted hack, and when the background image flickered back it vaguely recognized the shape of… the other asset?

More loud noises, something beeping angrily. Pressure registered on it's arms, just under it's shoulder struts, and it registered being moved slightly. Words.

"Fuck, say something! What's happening, Alice?! Alice!"

::terminology- "what's happening" phrase recognized- orders issued- relay status report; relay system information; relay alert history- origin; senior asset for mission- obedience required::

It's vocals sputtered with a choked noise, and as it successfully started relaying all the information flooding it's HUD in order of importance it's visuals continued to flicker, sometimes resetting entirely and going black for several seconds at a time. "Hack attempted; security passcode: false; attempted access to restricted coding: access denied: firewalls fully operational: security measures active; lockdown protocols initiated 22 seconds ago; system shutdown imminent; protect data at all costs; several systems nonresponsive; coding reset necessary: submit for maintenance procedures-"

"Fox, listen to me- can you override the shutdown? Damn it- Fox! Stay conscious!"

"-reset… override protocols active, passcode required… I… I don't… know… subroutines failing… s-systems locked, data unavailable, crash possible… initiate emergency shutdown to prevent system damage…"

"Fox! Damn it! Stark, do something! It's fucking code, hack it or something!"

"We don't know what's going to happen if I go at those firewalls! Even Jarvis can only work so fast, I don't know how much of this coding is controlling essential body functions, like, her fucking heartbeat, or her breathing! I fuck this up and she's a vegetable for the rest of her life!"

"You do nothing and she's going to fucking die!"

"I'm going as fast as I can! I can't- what the fuck is she saying?! Is that still system errors?!

My name is Alice, I was born in Albany, New York, I have two sisters and a brother, I've been kidnapped for some kind of government experiment… it's so cold, I can't feel my hands,

"Alice! Alice, you have to fight this! Fuck- stay awake!"

They're coming back, I already hurt so much, god make it stop, please make it stop

"Stark!"

"Yelling at me doesn't make this go any faster!"

Hack detected; access denied; firewalls under attack; initiate emergency shutdown

"FOX DO NOT SHUT DOWN!"

just kill me please, get it over with, don't hurt me anymore please please please kill me just fucking kill me

"Bring in the emergency equipment!"

firewalls under attack- initiate shutdown failed- initiate counter measures

"I've almost got it!"

it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts god it hurts make it stop make it stop please not the chair make it stop

"Get a life support system in here!"

my name is alice my name is alice my name is alice my name is alice my name is alice

Stark broke through the firewalls, and in less than a second Jarvis was copying all of the coding to an external device.

Fox's eyes shot open, unseeing, and it's back arched clear off the table as it's systems tried to forcibly eject the foreign programming. Alice screamed.

Barnes released his grip on her now slightly bruised shoulders to give the doctor room.

Starks monitor had just barely finished displaying all of the coding copied from her implant when the screen displaying the coding still in the implant went completely blank.

Fox/Alice's vitals monitor flatlined.