bakerstreet | alternate universe meme

Two missions gone bad was unfortunate. Three was a pattern. Four meant it was starting to get hard to ignore what was becoming clearer -- someone was sabotaging the Warehouse. Not that anybody else believed it. Things just went bad sometimes, they said. Even the Regents seemed to think he was just jumping at shadows. He'd been an agent for too long, maybe be needed a break. Sure.

And okay, maybe practically living in the Warehouse wasn't the healthiest thing. But for all that Tony may have been no Caretaker, that much had been made abundantly clear, he still could have sworn he felt a connection sometimes. The old boy certainly had a mind of his own, anyway, and Tony had been around the place long enough that he had a fairly good sense of how to read things.

So when the Warehouse did things like shifting aisles around, he wasn't particularly surprised. The fact that he kept running face-first into the Bronze Sector, that was a little weirder. The third time it happened, Tony huffed, eyed the walls like that might actually do something, and just gave up and went inside.

He'd been there before, of course, just about every agent had. This time he found himself being drawn towards one particular figure. James Barnes, the agent who'd gone rogue. Tony had heard the stories, and something had always sat a little wrong with him about them, but he'd never given it much thought. Stories got muddled, things got misheard. It didn't mean anything.

And so what if he was kind of attractive, for a bronze guy. And...oddly lacking in dust, unlike the other statues dotted around. Like someone had been in here cleaning. Or he'd been moved.

Before Tony could second guess the hunch, he was already hauling the guy towards the de-bronzer. If he had no idea who to trust, who better than a rogue agent, right? Sure.

Once and so long ago, the warehouse had been Bucky's life and nearly everything revolved around it, which might have been his ultimate downfall because of things he discovered. There existed a group that wanted not only power but something within the warehouse and the even if he managed to foil them, the group made sure to frame him, making it seem as if things had become too much. As if the power went to his head, similar in the way it had to agent wells. And just like her, they bronzed him, silencing everything he might have to offer. It all stopped then, quieted down to a narrow focused existence until that too changed.

Peace it seemed would never be in the cards for him.

Regaining feeling, Bucky let out a low groan as the bronzing started to melt away from his body. How could - slowly, he became aware, body waking up so suddenly it sent aches rushing through him. He remembered but there were many things still foggy and lost in the gaps of time. He spent so long bronzed, after all.

Eyes blinking, he gazed at the man before him. "Who are you? What's going on?" Had something happened to the warehouse? "I'm guessing this wasn't sanctioned?" Another rogue agent perhaps? Not that he had been actually rogue in the first place.

"Sanctioned by who, exactly?" It probably shouldn't have been his immediate response, but it was the thing that caught Tony's attention first, so that was what they got. Tony had never actually seen someone de-bronzed before, he wasn't sure what he had expected. The suspicion was...interesting, from a supposed enemy of the Warehouse.

But Tony just shrugged, trying for a nonchalance he didn't quite feel. "James Barnes, I presume?" There, that was a better starting point. A chance for Tony to scrabble for his equilibrium, as much as he was likely to get.

Continuing to shake, Bucky attempted to acclimate himself with living again. How long had it been since he lasted breathed in air and talked to someone else? It seemed nearly unbelievable but he didn't want to think too deeply on it and risk jinxing something. "The Regents," he responded simply, giving the man an odd look. Was he new to the Warehouse? No one usually de-bronzed anyone and he couldn't imagine anyone would have wanted him out speaking his truths.

"I am and you are?" He wanted more than just a name. He wanted answers and he wanted them right away. They probably did not have much time before someone discovered what happened there.

"Tony," he returned, and then hesitated on the last name. Hard not to notice that he was related to the previous Caretaker if he gave that away. And he was pretty sure that Howard had been active in Barnes' time.

Instead, he cleared his throat and shook his head. They could get into that later. "No, look. There's something seriously fucked up going on here. Figure you're the big rogue agent, you might have some insight." Tony folded his arms across his chest and did his best to look serious. There was no way in hell he was going to intimidate Barnes, but he could at least attempt to look like he knew what he was doing.

Tony did not in any way intimidate Bucky but there were other more important things to focus on such as someone de-bronzing him just because and then demanding information. A ploy maybe or a trap to see if he would talk about what landed him in trouble in the first place?

Staying silent, Bucky regarded the man with a questioning intensity. To take q chance or not - to keep still or try to make a break for it.

"What sorta things have been happening?" he finally asked, deciding to earn himself some information before he decided to say anything.

One hand lifted enough for Tony to gesture vaguely, but he kept his eyes on Barnes. Something wasn't adding up here, with what he knew of Barnes' history and the man in front of him. He might have hesitated to call them flashes of insight, but Tony was well used to the kind of intuitive leaps his mind could make sometimes to discount the warning bells in the back of his head.

"Missions going wrong, bad intel. Too much in too short of a span of time." He hesitated for a moment, then sighed. Might as well lay this all out, if he was going to. "Pretty sure there's some kind of internal sabotage going on. And I can't figure out why."

The warehouse Bucky found during his time as an agent could allow for things to happen and direct certain people into place. It made him wonder if the warehouse had him bronzed on purpose to be useful at a later date and time. Apparently now by the sound of it. Taking in the words carefully, he gave a slight nod to his head since it had to be connected to the mess first developed in his time period. The group must have gone dormant to collect greater forces.

"When I was an agent, there was this group that wanted the warehouse to use things. For power and you know how that goes," Bucky began, shaking out his limbs because he still felt so stiff. "It was a bigger deal because one of the regents they claim to be dead isn't and they founded the group. There's some former agents in it too and the caretaker during my time - he was accused of developing things." Akin to HG Wells, in fact.

Tony's eyebrows shot upwards immediately. Okay that was...more than he had expected to get, and it took a moment for the information to settle into place in his brain. Once he got it into a manageable order though, it made a frightening amount of sense.

Of course, Barnes could be lying. But from the looks of things, he seemed a little too out of it still to be able to put that good of a story together on the spot.

Though it took a moment later for one particular part of that whole story to register. "Wait, the caretaker did?" He stared at Barnes for a moment, trying to train back his genuine surprise into something that at least looked a little more coherent. Last thing he needed was for the guy to decide he was just a moron. "Stark, right?"

Moving his jaw back and forth, Bucky attempted to shake his limbs out a little more too. The disoriented feeling would not go away nor the dread of everything being a trap. What could the agent really want with him? Sure, he spoke about odd things in the Warehouse but when were things ever normal around them? Speaking of, be shifted forward to try and look at the Warehouse he missed so badly. Being an agent had been the highlight of his life and he found it difficult still to not consider himself an agent. "What warehouse is this?" He didn't know how long they left him under.

"Yeah," he commented looking at Tony from over his shoulder. "He was experimenting and using some of the -" He shook his head. "He didn't mean anything evil by it but they wouldn't listen. We were friends." It didn't help the case against him at all.

There was a long moment where all Tony could do was stare. And then he just put his head into his hands and made himself take a few long, deep breaths.

"Of course he was," Tony said, sounding tired. Jesus christ, Howard. Why he couldn't ever just say anything, Tony would never know. Would definitely never know now.

And that was what made him push his hands up into his hair and straighten again to fix Barnes with a look. "It's 13," he said, one side of his mouth lifting into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Howard was my father."

13? It had been longer than he thought and the realisation twisted up knots in his stomach with how much time he lost. He should have it expected it, though, since they bronzed him without ever intending to revive him again. The other revelation, though, shocked him even more. "Your father," he repeated, face filling with a deep frown. "Do you intend to avenge his name?" Revenge plots never worked out well he found.

Stepping forward more, he leaned over to look into his beloved warehouse, seeing all the changes it went through. "How many agents are there now? Who is the Caretaker? They'll know what you did soon. You got a plan for that?"

He wouldn't hold his breath.

"Current Caretaker's name is Stane, don't know if you'd know him." And Tony really, really wanted to believe that he was on the level, but sometimes...He shook his head to clear it. "I'm not avenging anything. I just want to make sure the Warehouse isn't compromised."

The shelving of the aisles around them creaked quietly, like the Warehouse itself was agreeing with him. "Maybe they will, maybe they won't. You gonna flip out and try to kill me or anything?" He kind of doubted it, considering how agreeable the guy had been so far, but it didn't hurt to check.

The creaking pulled his attention, a laser-like kind of focus and he could feel the roaming tension drifting through the Warehouse. While he had been an agent, he bonded very deeply with the place, far more than most, so it did not surprise him if the Warehouse decided to call out to him rather than another.

"I'm not," he responded, not really waiting for Tony before he stated off in the direction of the office to get at the computers. "I need to see what has been happening and if this is the same problem I got bronzed over. It might be something else."

He paused for a moment. "Have you had any trouble with anything?"

Tony watched him stalk past with an arched eyebrow, but considering the world didn't immediately end, he took right off after him. He was relatively sure that this wasn't the worst mistake he'd ever made, but he could deal with it on the off chance shit was about to go very wrong. He still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Gonna need you to be more specific," he said, hands tucked into his pockets. "If you mean the Warehouse itself, no. Jarvis and me are cool." Howard had been the one to bestow the name on the building, despite the sidelong glances it had earned him from the regents. He'd never exactly been one to care what people thought of him.

Ending up in the area with all the computers but still out of the way in case anyone happened by, Bucky began to click around and see what information he could find. Things were always far above and beyond in advancements with the Warehouse so the new tech did not puzzle him much. Plus, he adapted quickly.

"The Farnsworth communicators aren't malfunctioning? You aren't getting sent places you should not be?" he asked as he continued to locate about the rogue former agent and the regent.

They were both still on the run.

"I think they want what's locked up in the Warehouse. Some of the worst things if unleashed-" he trailed off with a shake of his head. "How may agents are there now?"

"You think I don't know that?" Tony gave him a dry look. He was an agent and a caretaker's son, he knew exactly what was out there. He patted one of the walls almost absently as he came around to Barnes' other side, like he was trying to reassure the building itself.

"Farnsworths are fine, I take care of that." No way was the tech going bad on his watch. "But missions have been going bad, people getting hurt. Not enough info or wrong info, but it all sounds good when it gets passed along. There's, hm. Maybe half a dozen of us at the moment?"

There were a lot of choice comments right on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed them down as he closed down the computer systems and turned to look at Tony. A faint sense of deja vu washed over him, a blurring of past and present since he really looked like his father. Bucky had always enjoyed being in Howard's presence even if he unnerved others.

"The ones causing issues in my time are still out there and must have a way to connect the Warehouse. We need to find how," Bucky explained, already walking down another corridor. "The tech is connected to the Warehouse and can still malfunction."

The closed off wings loomed ahead of them, Bucky gazing up but not moving forward yet.

"Sure, it can malfunction, but it doesn't," Tony shot back with a rather elaborate eyeroll. "Just trust me on this. I know what I'm doing."

Or at least he did, until he got a better sense of where exactly Barnes was leading them. His eyebrows lifted a moment, but he just waited for Barnes to...go whatever it was he was doing. Maybe it was all a little fast considering he'd just been unbronzed, who knew.

"You want to tell me what we're doing?" He pitched his voice low and almost careful. Sure he wanted to know, but he was also kind of hoping that talking it out would jostle the guy out of whatever mental space he'd disappeared into.

"There are ways into the Warehouse, secret ones that no one would know about," Bucky explained, moving into the very heart of the Warehouse. "But a rogue regent would know each one." They reached the destination and Bucky looked up with a deepening frown.

"The things in here are really dangerous. Don't look at them or let anything touch you. Make sure not to drift too close to the circles or you will get trapped," he explained, offering not a single explanation on how HE knew so much.

"Are you ready? I need to check if they've been using this entrance and seal it off. I know how." Again, no explanation.

"Okay look," Tony said with mounting irritation, and stepped forward to grab hold of Barnes' arm and pull him to a stop before he could just march off again. "A, let's remember that I am actually an agent here and I know what the hell I'm doing, and B, maybe try actually explaining yourself? The Warehouse isn't going to sudden fall apart, you could stand to actually tell me something."

It could have been a sign that Barnes was just using him for something. It should have at least made him suspicious. Instead it mostly just annoyed the shit out of Tony that he was being treated like a tag-along kid.

The dark vault loomed ahead of them, looking just as menacing when he last viewed it, not long before the whole bronzing ordeal took place. It made him wonder what they must have said about him over the years with how much time past since then. Eyes gazed over at Tony for a long, long moment. "They're hidden entrances and exits to the Warehouse. The artifacts housed in here can alter everything and will destroy the Warehouse," he explained. "I need to see if they have been using it and seal it off."

He motioned a hand towards the keypad. "You're right. You're the agent and can get us in. But I wasn't kidding here - be really careful. The others will be alerted if you get sucked in by anything."

Tony stared at him for a long, searching moment, then stomped over to the keypad, obvious irritation still visible in every line of his body. Just because he understood the issue didn't mean he had to like it. He and the Warehouse had an understanding, it wasn't going to fuck with him. But it wasn't something he could really explain without sounding like either an idiot or delusional, so he just let it be.

"After you then," he said, gesturing towards the door as it opened. If he was so determined to run at the situation first, then fine. Tony could let him. They could have a nice long talk about everything later. Hopefully.

Flat out ignoring any of the reactions from Tony, Bucky carefully slipped inside once the door creaked opened. Would the room pick up on his status at all? He sure hoped not because involving anyone else would only place them at greater risk. The rogue agent and regent held plenty of power to evade capture for so long and were using artifacts in a personal way as well. At least, he imagined. "Keep your eyes from lingering on anything or it will pull you in," Bucky warned as he pushed further inside along the narrowly marked path towards what looked like nothing remarkable.

When he reached the little corner at last he tapped the certain pattern to make the entrance appear. All seemed well enough and in order until smoke slowly entered the space and dizziness overtook Bucky. "Keep away!" he voiced, trying to clear the smoke out to hit at some of the sides of the tunnel to collapse it and block it from being used.

But the dizziness won out in the end and he began to tip forward.

alternate universe meme

Bucky Barnes ( MCU )

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