July 3rd, 1968
Bucky Barnes lays in a hospital bed heavily wounded and missing an arm. He struggles to breath as he looks around the room and strange figure emerges from the shadows. The figure reaches into his jacket pocket and places a cigarette in Barnes' now quivering lower lip. He proceeds to light the end of it as Bucky looks up, apparently into his eyes.
"Now, tell me what happened." The figure says in a raspy but serious voice.
March 16, 1968
A Stark Industries HS-22 helicopter carries soldiers Castiglione, Barnes, and a hulking brute named Howlett-from Task Force Strucker over My Lai 5, a village suspected to be infiltrated by the Viet Cong. After encountering no enemy fire, Barnes lowers the helicopter and Howlett emerges from the rear smoking a heavy cigar and Castiglione follows.
"Well, where is he? Dead?" asks Castiglione.
Howlett sniffs the air before smirking: "No. He's finishing up at the moment."
As Howlett flicks his cigar toward a nearby apparent bomb shelter, a small contingent of enemy soldiers approach. Howlett instructs Castiglione to head back into the helicopter and that he and Barnes take cover.
"We won't leave you behind Howlett. That's an order!"
"You think I take orders from you? We are here for Creed. We won't leave him behind!"
Howlett turns and looks at the enemy's approaching.
"And we damn sure won't lose any of our kind."
Howlett runs towards the Viet Cong troops and, under heavy fire, punches and kicks his way through with ease. The last bloodied Viet Cong manages to his feet before fumbling around with his weapon at the sheer terror that this man can survive gunfire. Howlett smirks and whispers directly to the scared soldier while placing his hands on his hips.
"Behind you, bub." he mutters.
The soldier turns around and an even larger American soldier is behind him. Covered in blood and sweat, tattered clothes, entry wounds and a broken gun, the soldier, Creed, whisks the man away with one powerful blow.
Castiglione peaks his head out of the helicopter and gives the whirl symbol with his finger for Barnes to take off, to which Barnes responds with a thumbs up and a smile.
"How the hell did you break your gun, Creed?" Howlett asks, seemingly knowing the answer.
"They are mere scars, my friend. We all can't have vibranium like the good Captain."
Creed pats Howlett on the right shoulder and the two duck into the helicopter as it takes off.
The helicopter takes to the air before they are radioed by an incoming helicopter to escort them back to the site, per Colonel Stryker. Barnes circles the plane around as Howlett lights another cigarette and blows some smoke into Creed's face, taunting him.
"Watch it, comrade. When I'm out there doing the good deeds of the Captain, you may not look familiar."
"You'll never forget this face. If you do decide to kill me, put in a good word for my remains to the Captain, Howard, and the Boy Scouts."
"Look, there!" Castiglione points as he leans out of the HS-22.
The helicopter banks around a tree line to reveal a small ditch with bodies laying strewn about and fresh gun smoke in the air. The radio dispatch on the adjacent helicopter radios in:
"You guys head down there and take a look. We're headed over to My Lai 4. Something ain't right around here, over."
"Copy that," says Barnes as he begins to put the bird down.
Upon landing, they all step from the helicopter to investigate. Creed hears some gunfire in the distance and becomes distracted and runs off into the nearby woods. Castiglione notices an approaching US vehicle and flags them down. The truck pulls directly up to Howlett and the doors swing open. Colonel William Stryker exits the left while an unknown man with a monocle and a dark black suit exits the right.
"What's going on here, Colonel?"
"Now, now, calm down there soldier. We just have a few questions for you. Castiglione, please get back in the helicopter and report to camp."
Castiglione obliges after giving a cautious yet, confused look to Howlett.
Howlett takes a sniff of the air and his ears twitch as he hears footsteps coming up the rear, he counts at least six with guns on his senses alone. One of them has a limp as well.
"Is there a problem, Colonel? And what's with the 'Man in Black' here?"
The man steps forward and removes his monocle. He pulls out a handkerchief and slowly wipes away smears before lifting it into the rays of the sun.
"Ahem," he begins, "excuse my manners," fastening the monocle back in his eye "my name is Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and, while you don't know it yet, you have indeed been working for me."
"The hell I have. You got the wrong soldier, sir."
"I am your superior and I'd advise you to address me as such."
"Colonel, what the... Who is this guy and give me a reason I should rip him a new one!"
"You see those men behind you, soldier?"
Howlett finally turns around and, just as he suspected, six armed soldiers all dressed in black pointing guns at him.
"They work for me as well. You ALL work for me. Even the good doctor here. Now..."
He signals to a new vehicle that has just pulled up. The helicopter carrying Barnes and Castiglione kicks up dusk in the rear as it takes off. The truck comes to a stop in front of the standoff and a soldier emerges with a little Vietnamese civilian girl.
"I want to see what you can do, you specimen."
"What?"
"The bullet holes, the speed, the strength, all of it. Show me or the girl dies here and now."
Just then the helicopter comes abck speeding around the corner in a fiery blaze being riddled with bullets from Castiglione's gun as Barnes pilots the craft angling toward the standoff. Howlett rushes into action under the cover of dust, gunfire, and debris. He dispatches all of the men and grabs the girl shielding her from the crashing plane. Strucker and the Colonel dodge narrowly behind a vehicle. Howlett takes off with the girl on foot as Strucker reaches for the Colonel's pistol and begins firing at his back.
"SHOW ME!" he screams as he empties the clip.
Howlett charges into a nearby ditch, full of dead bodies while still sheltering the scared girl. Another kid, a teenage boy, alive in the ditch and scared, charges at the American soldier with a sword. Wielding it ferociously at Howlett, who is trying not to harm the boy, he mistakenly slices off the young girls fingers. As she writhes in pain Howlett stands up and snatches the sword from the boy just as Creed arrives and directs all three of them the helicopter where Barnes has landed nearby. Howlett wraps the girls' hands in cloth from a nearby body and straddles her to his chest. As he and Creed leave the ditch Strucker is in hot pursuit firing yet another weapon and more trucks of his soldiers flank him. Howlett looks back at the boy who was left alone to die amongst his family with just a sword, which he has picked back up upon hearing the gunfire. Bullets rip through the mass grave and the boy drops to his knees and covers his ears while looking directly at Howlett. Taking pity, he ultimately gestures at the boy to come out and he grabs his hand; lifting him above ground.
Upon mounting the helicopter under a hail of gunfire the five-some take off before Barnes sees other helicopters in the distance. They're not military grade and they have a black and red snake symbol on them. The helicopters open fire all at once with Barnes' helicopter only about thirty feet off of the ground. Castiglione jumps out and runs into the nearby woods for cover while firing upon Strucker in an effort to divert the gunfire.
"Get the kids out of here! I can hold them down here! You have to exit that chopper!" He screams completely inaudible amongst the hail of gunfire.
Howlett grabs the two children and jumps to the ground in an uneasy landing, injuring the boy's leg. Howlett places his body on top of both of them to absorb the incoming gun fire. Back in the helicopter, Creed tries to free Barnes but the helicopter takes too much damage. It begins to spiral in a twister of smoke crashes head first in a blaze that burns high and thunderous.
As Strucker and Colonel Stryker approach Howlett's body, another team dispatches to the woods to locate Castiglione. Howlett is riddled with bullets to his back, legs, head, and arms. Strucker looks down on him as the wounds begin to slowly heal themselves and he smiles.
"I told you was special, unique even." Stryker says, adjusting his jacket. "Both of them."
"The other brute?" says Strucker with a raised eyebrow.
They look over to the wrecked helicopter to see a hunched over, burnt, and bloodied Creed dragging Barnes' one-armed body from the fire.
"Oh, he's special, too."
"You soldiers, subdue those two men. Move fast, you don't want to deal with the big one if he comes around fully." Announces Stryker.
A team of black-clad soldiers run over to the crash site.
"You three, get this man in the truck as soon as possible. Put him under with the strongest anesthetic you have. Apparently he can take it. Or at the least he can SHOW me if he can."
Strucker turns to his car until he is halted by a soldier turning over Howlett's body.
"Sir, there is a little boy and a little girl under here."
"Leave them," he whisks his hand "they will die where they belong. If not, they will hate HIM for saving them. Let's go!" Strucker tugs on the door handle.
"What about Castiglione? You want to wait?"
"No. He's no use to us. Radio your men to let him go. We must make haste to Lord Dark Wind so we can begin soon. Hail Hydra, my good doctor, Hail Hydra." Strucker says with a smile.
"Hail Hydra." Colonel Stryker approves.
After the soldiers round up the bodies the trucks pull away with Creed, Barnes, and Howlett in tow.
After a few minutes a lone helicopter approaches the crash site and lands. Captain America exits the craft and surveys the area. Fearing for his fallen friend Barnes, he throws his shield at the rubble, in anger, knocking it further away. He looks back at the pilot, Director Nick Fury, as he bows his head in the direction of the two children's bodies. Captain America sees that they are still alive and rushes over to them. The boy comes to his feet quickly with his sword drawn and feet in a fighting stance over the body of the girl.
"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, calm down. I'm here to help. Are you two OK? Do you need medical assistance?"
The boy grinds his teeth and clinches his weapon.
"My name is Steve, Steve Rodgers. Look, look! I'll put down my weapon if you put down yours." The Captain lowers his shield in a small dust-up. The boy clinches tighter at the startling sound of vibranium.
"Look, me and my buddy back there, we can take you some place safe. Ok? How does that sound?" He gestures his hands with two thumbs up and a smile, trying to ease the children.
The boy looks down at the girl as she begins to blink her eyes. He begins to let out a tear.
"Do you two have names? W-What's your name? I'm here to help, I promise you."
The boy rubs the forehead of the dark-haired girl, looks at the shield and then finally to the Captain.
"Yuriko."
"Ok, Ok, her name is Yuriko. Ok. Yuriko, we're going to get you out of here."
The boy stands up and allows his sword to lower at his side with a relaxed, but steady, grip.
"I.. I. Kenuichio Harada."
"OK, great! Koon-Chio. Ok, now, and sorry if I butchered that, but let's get you guys some help."
The captain inches closer and places his hand on the boy's shoulder. He leans down and picks up the girl and notices her bandaged bloodied hands. He places her in the bowl of his shield and they walk toward the helicopter.
July 3, 1968
The cigarette shakes painfully in Barnes' mouth. The figure takes a step back and places his hand on the shoulder of another figure, a shorter man. He leans in close to his ear:
"He's all yours Arnim."
The man with the overly large glasses and a white lab coat places his hand atop the figure's.
"Thank you. Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra."
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