3 – Next Assignment

Sleep for someone like me is very hard to come by. To me, sleeping wastes time. As much as I love recuperating, I want to get back out into the field. I want to get my next target so I can accomplish another mission. I hope I get a bigger target this time. Adam Strider hadn't been a huge priority.

I'm rubbing myself down in the bathroom after a cold shower. Everything is cold here. Ugh, I hate it. Just once I'd like some heat. I can't adapt to this temperature. It and I don't agree.

I pull back on my tank top and sweats from the previous day. I wrinkle my nose. Change of clothes isn't so often either.

When I exit the bathroom, I glower and stop in my tracks. Tessa is in my room, but she's not the reason I'm tense. I don't like people other than Tessa in my room. It's an invasion of privacy. Besides my "handler," there are two HYDRA agents. But they're just the flanks to the commander-in-chief. He greets me with a wry smile.

I look at Tessa questioningly. She doesn't give me an answer.

"Another job," says the commander-in-chief. I wish I had a name to him, but he's never properly introduced himself to me. I've never been able to put a name to his rather handsome face. Yes, the new head of HYDRA is rather attractive. A slight tan complexion, dark hair, and cold dark eyes. Take away the smile on his face and he may as well be like me or the previous Asset.

The commander-in-chief nods to Tessa, who gives me a file. I thumb through it, not saying a word.

"You'll definitely like this one," the commander-in-chief says.

I recognize the picture. Truthfully, I've never met my predecessor. I've only heard stories about him.

Now, I'll get to meet him. Meet him long enough to take him out.

There's a small picture of him from before his Asset days. He's dressed in army gear. This picture is decades old, the color looks faded, but overall in mint condition.

The picture from now, though, isn't the same man, yet it is. His hair has grown out and is stringy and dark. He's got a permanent frown etched onto his face. The eyes that I see in the current picture don't quite match the ones in the first picture. These current eyes aren't youthful, they're aged. James Buchanan Barnes, huh? What...seriously? How do you get the nickname "Bucky" out of this? I study any major details, memorizing his current picture especially. I'm not looking at the man from the past, I'm looking at the man in the present.

At last. The Winter Soldier will be no more. Out with the old, in with the new.

"We'll get you where you need to go. You can handle the rest," says the commander-in-chief.

"You don't want him alive, sir?" asks Tessa. "Wouldn't it be safer and better for HYDRA as a whole? Just because he defected doesn't mean he's lost to us. He could easily be Wiped again." I can hear it, the underlying tone of disgust at her own words. I know why she's doing it, she wants to spare his life.

The commander-in-chief purses his lips. "I considered it." He shrugs. His brown eyes snap to me. "I guess you're bringing him back alive to us, Angel. If he dies, it won't be a total loss, but I won't be happy if you come back empty-handed." He grimaces slightly. "Get the job done."

I nod, clearing my throat. "Should I have no choice but to kill him, how do you want it done?"

I surprise myself, and the others in my room. I haven't spoken a lot since with HYDRA. Usually, if I get a word in, I get reprimanded. I'm waiting for the punishment.

But none comes my way.

"Should you have to kill him..." The commander-in-chief goes to me, daring to put a hand on my shoulder. "Dealer's choice. Anyone who tries to get in your way, they're free game, especially if they're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."

Tessa looks green, but nobody other than I really notice it. I look back at the head of HYDRA and nod again.

"You're heading out in a few hours. I've given Tessa the rundown, she'll fill you in on the rest."

With a nod towards his flanks, the commander-in-chief disappears, leaving Tessa and me in my room. She sighs heavily, looking weary. My eyes downcast to the papers in the folder.

"I've got all that you'll need. We'll have a plane take you. They've a-already got a motel room for you to use for as long as you need."

I look up at her, and she watches me. "What?" I ask.

"Since when did you get brave enough to speak?" She tries to tease, but she sounds more afraid than anything. "When I tried to encourage you, you wouldn't say a word."

"I'm not muzzled, Tessa. I've just never felt the need to talk. What's there to say? I get my mission, I complete it. I come back, and then repeat the process all over again." I close the file. "I don't need to ask questions."

"I'll just...I'll come for you when it's time. I suggest you sleep, because I know you haven't."

I watch as Tessa leaves, shutting the door behind her. I go to the uncomfortable bed and lay on my side, the file close to me, closed. I'm getting my ultimate test already. I've always considered him the biggest, most challenging target.

It's going to be hard, to keep him alive. Every fiber in my body tells me to kill. He's a traitor, he left HYDRA. He doesn't get a second chance in my book. Who better to kill him than his former employer?

Somehow, my eyes close, and I find myself dreaming.

***

"I never agreed to this!" I shout.

The restraints are the only things separating me from strangling the people around me. I scream in outrage, which allows someone to put a gag on my mouth so it's muffled. I curse every word under the sun at the scientists around me. I'm sweating a bit, and the lights are too bright for me, almost blinding.

My muffled screams tune out what scientists garbed in white are saying to one another. I look up, eyes widening at the contraption above my head. I don't know what it is, but I don't like it. I don't like what they've done to me. They've experimented on me. They've enhanced me. I feel different. I don't feel like myself anymore.

Whatever they're about to do next, it has to be a lot worse than poking me with needles and putting some serum through my body. And that had been a rough experience. My veins ache dully, only a pinch of the real pain that I had initially gone through.

"Run the tests. You'll know when it's been done right," says someone.

I struggle against the metal restraints, as though that'll have any effect. I move violently around as the contraption comes down towards my head. I can't avoid it. It doesn't press against my skull, it just hovers. My nails bite into my palms, and I'm sure I'm bleeding them right now.

I scream when I feel the intense shock go through my skull straight to my brain.

***

I quickly decide that sleeping is not the thing for me.

Tessa has perfect timing, because she opens the door as I bolt upright. I try to act as though what I dreamt about didn't bother me. I hastily pick the file up off the floor. Somehow, in my haste, I'd knocked it away from me.

"It's time," she tells me.

I follow Tessa out of my room, down the hall, to the elevator. She sways uneasily during the trip up. It must be just me who can see how nervous or emotional she always is. I don't know why I'm so observant of what she does.

We get out of the elevator, and Tessa leads me to a small aircraft. The ramp is already down, all I have to do is walk aboard and strap myself in. But as I'm walking up the ramp, Tessa is following me. I stop and look back at her.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I was assigned to tag along in case you get yourself hurt," she explains timidly. "Ward doesn't want you severely injured."

"I thought you were a caretaker, not a doctor?"

"I'm both. Why else do you think I hang around the infirmary so much?" She nods toward the inside of the aircraft.

The ramp closes once Tessa and I are inside. We strap ourselves in, she's across from me. I'm set next to a duffel bag full of what I assume is everything I'll need: clothes, weaponry. Tessa has a bag near her too, probably with clothes and medical supplies.

I've never needed an on-call doctor on my other missions. Why should this require Tessa? Ward—whoever that guy is—is being a bit much right now. Yes, I'm on the hunt for the Winter Soldier. Yes, there is a chance that he may kill me or seriously hurt me. But I'm not afraid of him.

If anything, he should be afraid of me. I'm his replacement. Screw what the commander-in-chief told me. The Winter Soldier defected, he shouldn't be given a second chance. He won't want it anyway, I know. I don't want him back. This is my time. My era. The Winter Soldier is gone and highly likely not returning to HYDRA's open arms.

This is the era of Hell's Angel now.

Hell's Angel. That is the name HYDRA crowned me with when I started doing their dirty work. I'm not muzzled like the Winter Soldier had been. I don't need to be disguised, I blend in well with the world. I cover my tracks, make myself untraceable.

I'm the new fist of HYDRA.

**The hunt begins...next chapter! 

Who's ready? You know an old vs. new Asset battle will be brewing!!**