At a frozen wasteland whip headlights were approaching as a high-tech HMUV grinder through an arctic snowstorm. The HMUV stopped and two SHIELD men got out. The whipping snow was deafening and they could barely see as the search team leader met them, offering his hand.
"You the guys from Washington?" Search Team Leader asked.
"Get many other visitors out here?" SHIELD LT. asked.
"How long have you been on site?" SHIELD tech asked.
"Since this morning. A Russian oil team called it in about 18 hours ago." Search Team Leader said.
"How come nobody spotted it before?" SHIELD LT. asked.
"Ice melts. Storms blow in. Landscape changes all the time." Search Team Leader asked said gesturing around them getting a worried look. "You mind if I ask what this thing is, exactly?"
"Would you believe us if we said it was a weather balloon?"
"No." Search Team Leader said and SHIELD men stared and he shrugged and walked on. "Listen, for the record, I'm not sure we have the equipment for a job like this-"
"Is the sonar up and running yet?"
"Sure. We're getting deep ice preliminaries now. Very deep."
"So? How long before we can start craning it out?" SHIELD tech asked.
He stops the Shield Tech, a bit incredulous.
"I don't think you quite understand…" the Search Team Leader said and pointed at something off screen. "You guys are going to need one hell of a crane." he said and the two SHIELD men looked awestruck.
There was a big wingtip juts from the ice, towering above them like a skyscraper.
A skull and tentacle logo was just visible through the ice with German words stenciled ominously below.
On a frozen plane it was pitch black and the laser burnt through, cutting a hole. The metal circle dropped, letting in a shaft of light.
The two SHIELD operatives from the HMUV rappelled down the ropes as they crept through the frozen, devastated plane.
Shattered control screens reflected their flashlights and the lieutenant eyes a panel, "GEFAHR. Explosivstoffe."
"This has got to be World War II. But the Luftwaffe didn't have anything nearly this advanced." he said. "Or this big."
"Lieutenant?" SHIELD tech. asked.
"Hold that, Base." SHIELD LT. said and the tech chipped at an ice flare, and stopped.
"What is it?"
The lieutenant stares, awed.
"Base, get me a line to the colonel. I don't care what time it is." SHIELD LT. said. "This one's worth waking up for." he said and knocked away the last of the ice, revealing a red, white and blue shield.
At a frozen wasteland a snowcat hauled out a huge block of ice and the shield was barely visible inside.
On Castle Rock Tower two partisans raced across the cobblestones as an ominous clanking filled the air.
"Go and tell the Keeper! Hurry!" Erik said in Norwegian.
Meanwhile Bucky was jogging around Washington, D.C. quickly as usual when he got a text message so stopped and opened to see it from Natasha.
"Mission alert for you. Extraction imminent. Meet at the curb. :)"
"Damnit." he muttered and sighed but put it in his pocket and headed to the curb.
Then Natasha pulled up in her car by the curb and rolled down the window.
"Hey, Serge. You know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil."
"Very funny." he said, walked over to her car and got in. "Now, is this a just me or an us?"
"Both." she said and he nodded.
"And stop calling me fossil!" he said and she quickly pulled away and drove off.
Later Bucky was flying over the Indian Ocean with SHIELD agents, led by Brock Rumlow.
"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star. They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, 93 minutes ago." Rumlow said.
"Any demands?" Bucky asked.
"A billion and a half."
"Damn! Why so steep?"
"Because it SHIELD's."
"Fair enough. So it's not off-course, it's trespassing."
"I'm sure they have a good reason." Natasha said.
"How many pirates?"
"Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc." Rumlow said and showed them a photo of Batroc on the monitor. "Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."
"Hostages?"
"Uh...mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell." Rumlow said and pulled up Sitwell's photo on the monitor. "They're in the galley."
"What the hell is Sitwell doing on a launch ship? Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you kill the engines and wait for instructions, try and dig whatever you can get your hands on to. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life-pods, get 'em out. Let's move."
"STRIKE, you heard the Serge. Gear up." Rumlow said as they started getting ready to dove off the jet; into his radio.
"Secure channel seven." Bucky said on his wrist communicator.
"Seven secure. Did you do anything fun Saturday night?" Natasha said.
"Don't even Nat."
"Coming up by the drop zone, Serge." the pilot said on the radio.
"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes." Natasha said.
"That's not why I don't ask." Bucky said.
"Too shy or too scared?"
"I'm gay!" he said and jumped out of the jet.
"Was he wearing a parachute?" a STRIKE agent asked and Rumlow smiled.
"No. No, he wasn't." Rumlow said.
After jumping out the jet Bucky dove into the ocean and climbed onto the ship, beating everyone on the deck swiftly before anyone rose the alarm when he was interrupted by one of the pirates pointing his gun at him
"Bouge pas! Bouge pas." French pirate 1 said and was shot dead by Bucky mentally thanking Jones for teaching them french all those years ago as Rumlow, Natasha and another agent parachute down onto the deck to join him.
"Since when are you gay?" Natasha asked.
"Secure the engine room!" Bucky said ignoring her question.
"I'm multitasking." she said and jumped down to the lower deck.
Below deck the pirates were holding the ship's crew, including Sitwell, hostage.
"J'ai dit à Batroc que si on veut que le SHIELD nous paye, commence à leur envoyer des corps maintenant!" French pirate 1 said to the hostages. "Une balle pour quelqu'un." he said. "You want a bullet in your head?!" he shouted in English. "T'en veux une. Hein!" "Bouge ton pied. Tu veux une balle dans la tête?" he said and kicked one of their legs.
Meanwhile on the deck Bucky moved quickly to find the hostages; in the control room.
"J'aime pas attendre. Appelle Durand. Je veux que l'on s'arrache dès que la ranson arrive." Batarock said.
"Oui, Batroc." a French pirate said and made the call. "Durand. Démarre le moteur."
"Okay." Durand said, put the phone down, turned and saw Natasha behind him.
"Hey, sailor." Natasha said, quickly knocked him down and managed to swing down below deck shooting several of the pirates on the way.
"Ferme ta gueule!" a French pirate said to one of the hostages.
"Bouge pas toi! Mais qu'est ce qui se passe! Tu veux jouer les héros, c'est ça! T'as pas intérêt!" French pirate 1 said and looked at the hostages keeping their heads down. "Bon, j'ai trop attendu là." he said, went over to the locked door and banged on it to get the attention of the pirate guarding outside. "Hé, trouve Batroc, si j'ai pas de nouvelles dans deux minutes, je commence à les tuer."
"D'accord. Je vais le chercher!" French pirate 2 said.
As the pirate turned to leave Rumlow was standing behind him with a stun gun, shot him, on the other side of the door the other pirate sensed something but dismissed it.
"Deux minutes." French pirate 1 said while Rumlow and another STRIKE Agent put a bomb on the locked door.
In the control room.
"Silence radio du SHIELD, Batroc." a French pirate said as Bucky Steve watched them from the deck and another STRIKE agent was getting in position.
"Targets acquired." the STRIKE agent said.
Below deck Rumlow pointed his gun at the bomb against door where the hostages were being kept.
"STRIKE in position." Rumlow said.
"Natasha, what's your status?" Bucky said on his radio.
Meanwhile Natasha was jumping down below deck to knock out one of the pirates.
"Hang on!" she said on her radio as the pirate attacked her and she quickly knocked him out. "Engine room secure." she said, grabbed a pipe from the ground and knocked out one of the pirates.
"Le temps est écoulé. Qui veut mourrir en premier. Hé toi ! Prend la fille." French pirate 1 said to one of his men. "Hey, you! Take the girl."
"On my mark. Three. Two. One." Bucky said on his radio and the STRIKE team started shooting at the pirates while blow open the door and Rumlow quickly killed the head pirate.
"I told you, SHIELD doesn't negotiate." Sitwell said.
Back in the control room one of Batroc's men tried to get hold of the pirate below deck.
"Halo? Je pense que la ligne est morte. J'ai perdu le contact." a French pirate said when Bucky jumped in through the window but Batroc managed to escape.
"Hostages en route to extraction. Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play." Rumlow said to Bucky as he went looking for Batroc.
"Damnit!" Bucky said. "Natasha, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages." he said but got no reply and remembered he asked her to try and get as much info as she could.
All of a sudden, Batroc kicked him, and they fought. The former performed a flic flac and halted the fight while Bucky kicked him in the right leg, the stomach, and performed a downwards somersault kick to the face, knocking him down.
Batroc stood up with visible struggle while Bucky smashed him through the door of a room and knocked him out with a strong punch to the face.
"Well, this is awkward." Natasha said.
"No kidding." Bucky said. "Got the hard drive?"
"Yup." she said and pulled the flash drive out.
"Good." he said, heard something he recognized, grabbed her arm and ran as Batroc rose and threw a granite at them which Bucky deflected with his arm, grabbed Natasha and jumped through a window before it exploded.
"Okay. That one's on me." she said while he winced and held his arm tight.
"Shit that hurts." he said and looked at it to see two degree burns. "Damnit. I haven't had one of these since at least the eighties." he said and winced.
"Will it heal?"
"Yeah. When I get it looked at by a SHIELD doctor it will."
Later they were at a SHIELD medical bay and Bucky was getting his arm taken care of.
"It should be healed in about a week, two tops." the doctor said and he nodded.
"Thanks." he said and left.
On his way to his office he saw Fury standing right outside his door.
"Can I help you?" Bucky asked with an eyebrow up.
"I have something to tell you." Fury said.
"And? What would that be?"
"They found Steve Rogers." Fury said and Bucky froze.
"What?" Bucky whispered.