Avengers: Search for the Winter Soldier, Chapter 29
Title: Ghost Soldier
Summary: Nick Fury visits the Avengers for a briefing with the team regarding the Soldier's newly discovered stealth technology after learning of Hydra's efforts to find and reclaim the Winter Soldier.
At 0800 hours, Tony had the Soldier's weapons removed from the safe in the armory by Butterfingers and the other robotic arms. They were now laid out on tabletops for the team's perusal. It was an impressive array of weaponry, and the skill it took to wield each of them with the expertise the Soldier displayed at every turn was mind boggling. Tony contemplated the sheer physical conditioning and training that had to have gone into creating the Winter Soldier to make him so incredibly efficient with these weapons. He had rewound the video footage a number of times that showed off his hand-to-hand combat skills and the knife work at which he was extremely adept.
At 0835 hours, Tony opened a metal chest and removed the Soldier's leather jacket. He held it up in front of him and noted again the imbalance of the weight distribution due to it containing only one heavy leather sleeve. Briefly, he wondered if the weight of the leather sleeve on his right arm acted to balance the weight of his bionic arm on his left side. Tony shrugged the question away and laid out the jacket on a large conference table. He continued to unpack the items until the entire outfit was displayed on the table; jacket, pants, boots, glove, shoulder harness/gun belt, holster, under-armor turtleneck shirt, mask and goggles. That was all of it.
"Boss?" the female voice of the resident AI, called Friday, beckoned him.
"Yep," Tony replied, knowing Friday knew he was present.
"Director Fury's vehicle has just entered the compound, shall I alert the team?"
"Yeah, send them to my lab," Stark told her.
"Yes, Boss."
The team members were notified of Fury's arrival and were making their way to Stark's lab. Steve had gone down to the Soldier's room right after breakfast to find him still asleep. Knowing Steve was there and would frequently get lost in memories or thought, Natasha poked her head in to make sure he had heard the announcement.
"Yeah, I heard," he told her, but didn't move from his spot at the foot of the bed.
"Are you coming?" she asked, stepping into the room. She glanced at the Soldier and noted he was still asleep. "He'll be fine for a while," she told him. "Vision is on watch duty in the surveillance room. He'll alert us if the Soldier needs us." Steve nodded, but was reluctant to leave and he hesitated. "Steve -."
"Yeah, coming," he said and finally moved.
He and Nat met up with Sam and Bruce as they exited the elevator. "Where's Clint?" Steve asked.
"He's greeting Fury and escorting him to the lab," Bruce told him.
As the team gathered, they meandered around the tables looking at all the items on display around the room.
"Do not touch any of the weapons," Tony warned them. "I cannot emphasize the not part enough. They are biometrically controlled and will kill you before you settle them in your hand."
Steve's expression shifted in surprise and he quickly thanked whatever deity was looking out for him that in all the fights he'd had with the Soldier up close and personal that he never even thought to grab any of the weapons that the Soldier dropped or left behind. For a moment he felt a sense of panic as he wondered what had become of the person who had cleared the Soldier's weapons from the streets in Washington, D.C. Then he realized that all those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that had flooded the scene after the Soldier disappeared, were actually Hydra operatives. They would have been aware of the danger and handled the weapons with extreme care. He also realized that was how the Soldier had escaped and gotten out of the area; Rumlow and the entire S.T.R.I.K.E. team had allowed his escape.
Steve sighed heavily, shaking his head at his own naivety; he should have known. His thoughts turned inward with the memory of everything they'd discovered and uncovered at that time. Looking back, Steve kicked himself for being so naïve in regards to the S.T.R.I.K.E. team. There were so many instances of Rumlow and his team trying to distract Captain America from a lead… or physically getting in his way as he got closer to his goal. He should have known they were the bad guys… but then again, Nick Fury was the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he didn't know Hydra was at work inside his own organization.
"Hey," Natasha's voice broke through the memories and he looked at her. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just… remembering a few things," he told her.
Natasha nodded and then the door of the lab opened pulling her attention away from Steve. She smiled as Nick entered the room, followed by Maria Hill and Clint.
The first few minutes after Fury and Hill's arrival were filled with greetings and quick social exchanges. Once the group settled down Tony got down to the business at hand.
"So – everyone re-acquainted? Good," he mentioned with his usual flair for sarcasm. "Can we get down to why we are all here?"
"You said you had something interesting to share?" Nick reminded him as he stepped up next to Stark.
"Indeed I do," Tony replied. "First, all of his weapons are biometrically controlled. Which means, no one can use them except him… otherwise they self-destruct… and in a very violent manner. So don't anybody be foolish and try to pick them up."
"Even the knives?" Nick asked.
"Even the knives," Tony confirmed. "Everything you see on these tables have been specifically designed to match his DNA and fingerprints. If you don't share the same DNA as he, don't touch them."
"Easy enough," Nick commented. "What else?"
"This is the best part," Tony told with a genuine smile. He walked up to the table displaying the pieces that make up the Soldier's outfit. He put his hands down, palms flat and fingers spread; one hand on the pants and the other on the jacket. "It's all stealth."
"What?" Nick replied as if he didn't understand the statement.
"Stealth," Tony repeated. "It means avoiding detection –."
"I know what it means," Nick admonished Stark's sarcastic condescension.
"Okay," Tony replied. "I bet you're wondering how they applied stealth technology to a human being."
"That's what I meant when I asked what," Nick told him.
"I knew that," Tony replied.
"I know you knew that."
Tony stopped and stared at Fury as if he'd lost his train of thought.
"Stark?" Fury said to get him back on track.
"Right, sorry." Tony moved to another lab table and tapped a few keys on the board to bring up an overhead display that everyone could see easily. "Okay… for those uninitiated… stealth technology is designed to keep objects undetectable by radar. Military planes and some weapons are designed using certain shapes and angles that scatter radar beams in different directions away from the detection equipment sending out the signals."
On the overhead image, a blueprint image of an American stealth bomber rotated to show the viewers every angle of the military plane. Designed to be a flattened version of other military fighter planes, the sharp angles of its design successfully bounce radar beams into the atmosphere and not back toward the radar station that would be searching for it. Little red dotted lines animated on the screen to show would-be radar beams approaching the fighter plane and then being bounced in every direction except back in the direction from which they came. It was easy to understand the use of angles and sharp lines to reflect the signals.
"An object's position, velocity and shape can be determined by how the reflected energy waves are returned to the detection equipment," he explained, tapping another key. The image changed to show the radar signals bouncing off a regular, cylindrical passenger airliner back in the direction from where they came. "Objects can be rendered stealth by covering it in materials that are designed to absorb radar signals… absorbing the signal instead of reflecting it back. A special paint, which contains teeny tiny balls of iron that are placed in a specific shape to create a magnetic field… the shape absorbs radar waves and dissipates it as heat away from the object."
"Okay, but he's a man, not an object. They can't change his shape," Nick pointed out.
"No… that is true, they can't change his shape," Tony said and nodded in agreement. He then punched a few more keys and the image of the fighter jet disappeared and was replaced with the image of the Soldier's jacket and pants set up on the screen as if they were being worn. "…but the materials of his uniform… for lack of a better word, contain manmade items that essentially change his human form into something unrecognizable by all our known technology, including radar, sonar and thermal imaging."
"Isn't the uniform itself a manmade item?" Clint asked.
Tony tilted his head as if exasperated and looked at him with a deadpanned expression.
"What?" Clint said in defense.
"Yes," Tony replied. "Of course his outfit is a manmade item… but it, by itself, doesn't change his human form. It's what's inside the fibers of it that makes it stealth. Just under the "skin" of the materials are thousands of tiny metal pyramids…" He zoomed in on the image of the Soldier's combat pants until the display was showing microscopic objects sitting in the tiny gaps between the fibers of the material. "Tiny pyramids all laid out, side-by-side-by-side, creating a "skin" inside the material layers. Between each microscopic pyramid are those itty bitty iron balls I told you about. This doubles the protection because those dozen or so balls sitting between each pair of pyramids, bounce energy waves between them – back and forth, back and forth – until the waves lose their energy and are too weak to bounce back to the equipment that sent out the energy wave."
"That's incredible," Natasha stated in awe.
"Oh, that's not all," Tony told her with a smile. "Check this out." He changed the image to show the leather jacket and zoomed in on it until they could see it on a microscopic level. "Carbon based materials under the skin of the leather… and it contains higher concentrations of carbon the deeper it goes into the material. That carbon-base robs incoming radar waves of its energy. The boots and gloves have the same carbon concentrations. It's as if they soaked the leather items in a carbonized solution until it absorbed the substance. It most likely needs to be retreated regularly…" As he paused in his thought, Stark tapped his keyboard again and that brought up images of the Soldier's harness, holsters, mask and goggles. "They used a different technology on his accessories, but the same applies. The nylon weave of his harness and holsters match the same style of weave in the mask. I was curious as to why the hard plastic mask wasn't simply molded to have a smooth surface, but as you can see it appears to be a woven design, which actually adds all these tiny angles to it… anyway, like the harness straps and the holster belt which are woven nylon." He tapped keys again and the image zoomed in on the mask until they could clearly see the microscopic spaces between the plastic weave. "Nano-tubes… woven into the fibers of the material. The cylindrical shape of these tubes absorbs energy beams. Absorbing the energy means it cannot be reflected back and picked up by detection devices. And the best part of all of it – or the worst part, depending on which side of this you're standing on – and I'm on the side that really wants this tech to use to our advantage - they've designed these pyramids and balls and tubes to, not just absorb or scatter radar waves… but they've managed to create a system that absorbs all manner of detection. Sam and I were using everything we had at our disposal to search for him and we couldn't see him. He was less than twenty feet away from us and we had no idea he was there."
"And I was using thermal and sonar on top of radar," Sam interjected.
"Yeah, so was I," Tony told them. "He's completely invisible to infrared."
"We need this," Nick told him.
"Well… you're not getting it," Tony told him.
"Stark –."
"Fury -," Tony replied. "I'm not finished with my research and you're not exactly on our "to be trusted list" quite yet."
Nick met Tony's eyes and the two stood their ground… for a moment. Then Fury realized Stark wasn't out of line. He'd lost a lot of their trust when Hydra was discovered working productively within the cover of the government organization that he himself was in charge of. Fury's boss, Alexander Pierce, had actually been the head of Hydra and the Winter Soldier's head master.
Nick sighed and nodded, "Fair enough."
Vision watched the monitor, but the Soldier never moved. He was sound asleep the entire time. Movement near the door pulled his attention away from the screen. Wanda had come to visit him after the briefing in the lab had been concluded. The other team members remained in the lab to discuss with Fury and Hill, and each other, everything they'd just learned.
"Wanda," he greeted her with a smile.
"That was very interesting," she told him. "I assume you opted out because Tony had included you on the research."
"Indeed," he answered, still smiling.
She walked in and looked at the monitor to see the Soldier still quiet. "No movement?"
"No. I'm sure he needs the rest."
"Yeah, he's been through a lot already," Wanda replied. "According to Dr. Golden, he's got a long road ahead of him."
"Oh yes. I must say, I am learning a lot about the… human experience… the psychological and emotional part of being human…"
Wanda sat on the corner of the desk as the conversation steered toward Vision's personal interest in what it truly means to be human. As an artificial life form he harbored a strong desire to learn more about the emotional and psychological aspects of being human. He knew that "being human" was more about what was inside the person than being made of flesh and bone.
The Soldier opened his eyes. He didn't jolt awake like so many other times when the dream images he was forced to watch or re-live, would push him out of that dark realm violently with lingering sensations of the terror he experienced; this time his brain simply rolled over lazily and gently pushed him out of sleep into the bright room with the white walls.
He was slightly reclined on the bed with his face tilted away from the door. He lay still, listening, trying to pick up the sounds of breathing or a foot sliding on the tiled floor as the person watching over him shifted their position. There were no sounds in the room with him except the clock ticking above his head.
The Soldier took a deep breath, expanding his lungs as he realized how sluggish he felt. He was tired. He didn't understand why so much of his routine had changed. He was in a strange place, with strange people he'd never met before. He wasn't sure if they were his captors or his trainers. Nothing these people did made much sense to him.
They gave him food and water and kept dressing him in clothes that were nothing like the uniform he was used to. They never forced the mask on his face or sent the lightning through his eye. They even let him be clean, allowing him to shower, without threatening him in any way – that was the best part. For as long as he could remember, he was given only his uniforms and, other than a cursory sponge bath once in a while, he wasn't allowed the comfort of cleanliness. He had three different styles of uniform, but they were all black and he couldn't remember ever being allowed to wear anything else.
Usually when he was taken out of cryo, he'd be dragged to the chair and his memories erased by the lightning. Once his mind was wiped clean he'd begin the re-conditioning, which would always end with the words and a new mission. None of that was happening here and he didn't understand why. Was he being decommissioned? Was he past his usefulness? Had he displeased his handlers to the point that they were now done with him?
He wondered these things, not as linear thoughts that required his intellectual consideration, but as images that flashed in his head causing him confusion. He lay very still, slowly blinking as he stared at the blank wall to his left as the memories of his usual routine flashed behind his eyes.
Frigid cold air on frozen skin
Frigid cold air inside frozen lungs
Eyes that felt ice cold inside their own fluid behind closed eyelids
The hiss of the tube as it decompressed and the cylinder that surrounded him lifted toward the ceiling.
Sour smell inside the heavy mask strapped over his face
Voices – slurred and incomprehensible at first
Warm hands wrapped in latex touching his arm and chest
The sensation as the mask is removed
His first breath in months
Sensation on his skin of icy air inside the chamber mixing with the warm room air that rushed into the space as the cylinder was raised.
Unable to walk or talk or move; he's carried/dragged from the chamber to the immersion chair
Restraints
Halo machine spinning around his head coming into position
Lightning
Screams
His screams
Karpov speaks to him
The Words
His mind is clear of distractions
He is ready
Ready to comply
A mission
Mission report
Halo chair and lightning
Coldness. So cold. Always cold.
Wires and tubes
Heavy mask smells sour
Sleep again
The Soldier swallowed, blinking away the images of his life. The only life he'd ever known and now it's changed. He didn't understand. What was happening? Where is the chair? Where is his handler? Where are the soldiers with their weapons to guard him?
He slowly turned his head to the right to see there was no one in the room with him. He was alone. He turned his head to the left and right again just to be certain. Yes, he was alone. They'd left him alone. Where were the people? Had he been forgotten?
He kept low on the mattress and rolled onto his right side. He paused, listening for sounds. Did his motion alert anyone?
No.
He rolled himself up and over the bed rail as he'd done the other day to get away from his tormentors. He needed to find his handler. What had happened to him? He landed with his bare feet on the cool tile, his fingers tightly gripping the bed rail to be sure he had his balance. He felt off, but seemed able to stand. He slowly released the rail and turned to face the door. The Soldier paused, waiting. There were cameras in the room and he knew he was being watched. He waited and yet no alarms were activated.
The Soldier took a few steps toward the door and felt a tug on his right arm. He looked down to see the tube attached to his arm. He reached up with his left hand and pulled it free. He looked up at the camera in the corner over the open door and slowly walked toward the door.
When he made it to the threshold he stopped. He listened. There were no sounds. No voices shouting or footfalls of soldiers running toward him. He could hear the hum of invisible machinery behind the walls. He stepped silently into the corridor.