driftfleet | Video/Action- First Pirate Transmission

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Video/Action- First Pirate Transmission

Who: Panem!Bucky
Broadcast: Yes
Action: The Bridge of the Wonderduck
When: Now

[The video opens with a view of Bucky's face, hair short, face scruffy and a steel determination in his expression as though challenging the very fleet to suddenly do something and prove all his paranoid assumptions correct.]

The last time I was on a show for other's entertainment, we were made to fight and kill each other until only one person was left. Supposedly that's not the case here. Yet.

I assume some of you have been making attempts to learn more about this place and the people behind it.

[A pause. 'What do you know' was on the tip of his tongue, but he was the offworlder now. He didn't hold a single damn card in his hand he knew it too well. He hated it. He'd have to change that.]

What do we know?

[Anyone on the ship itself for any reason will find Bucky at the comms station, waiting for responses and seeing exactly how far the system would allow him to hack until the firewalls caught him. Sometimes you had to test the strength of the bars when you were in a cage.]

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[His surprise escapes like breath knocked out of him, not because his face was recognizable, he was too used to that, but because he was recognized. Someone knew him. They weren't close, but a sandbar could be an island when you were drowning.]

Aang.

No, I don't, the Capitol's too fond of it's drama. Even if we'd been captured and thrown into an arena as punishment, they would have made a spectacle out of us and our 'crimes.'

[He tried to offer a small smile.]

Besides...I'd like to see Snow try and do anything from six feet under.

[It's a relief to see someone else who seems to make some sense and remember the arenas, but it also makes Aang suspicious. Why this one? Why the Victor in District 13?

But he implies that Snow is dead, and that makes Aang pay attention.]

Where are you? I want to talk to you in person.

[He doesn't trust that these communicators will show him the truth. His eyes aren't always trustworthy, but they're more trustworthy than communicators. He's beginning to wonder if this is an elaborate trick to get him to reveal secrets about District 13 and the rebellion in the offworlder ranks, and he's not going to leave room for error when so many people could die.]

[He hesitates.]

That'd be the smart thing to do. They're definitely monitoring us, Capitol or not.

Where are you? I...haven't tried to use any of the transport options yet.

[He didn't trust them not to explode.]

I'm on the planet. [Aang moves the camera to show the rolling desert around him. There aren't any defining landmarks around, so it would be difficult to find him just based on that.] I can meet you down in the town.

[Although Aang can tell what Bucky's hesitation is. Aang had hesitated too, but ultimately, the discomfort of being in a small metal box in an airless vacuum outweighed the discomfort of hopping on a vulnerable potentially explosive shuttle to the planet.] The shuttles work okay for now. At least the one I used.

[He hesitates a moment more, but then nods. Unless he wanted to keep himself cornered here, he'd have to risk it at some point. If it is rigged, maybe he can at least hope there's some sort of resurrection factor here too.]

You remember the blind spot in the Capitol that was behind the bar themed around the ocean? Go there, pretending the LZ is the Tribute Tower. [A beat.] The landing zone.

I'll meet you there. Don't let someone follow you.

[It was the only safe way he could think to decide where to meet without being traced.

Okay. I'll see you there.

[Aang shuts off his communicator. When he gets to the town, he leaves it stashed in a random house's attic. He doesn't want to be tracked using that, either.

He's on the planet already, so he has the advantage of getting there before Bucky after taking a meandering path there, always keeping an eye out for possible tails.

He takes the opportunity to scout it out. It's at the corner of a hardware store, looking entirely untouched. Aang considers grabbing a weapon from the store before Bucky gets there, but decides that his bending is already weapon enough for him.

But Aang isn't going to linger on the street like a sitting duck. He climbs to the roof of the store, perching at the edge and overlooking the meeting spot, ready to meet but not ready to give up what tactical advantages he can have if this proves to be a trick. Aang would prefer District 13 over the Capitol any day, but he knows that even if this man really is the D13 James Barnes, that doesn't mean he has Aang's best interests at heart. He's not Aang's Bucky.]

[Bucky's communicator doesn't leave the Wonderduck. He stashes it's in what's supposed to be his room. Supposedly.

It's a nerve-wracking trip to the surface; every second he expected the whole thing to make a death rattle, break apart, and strand him in space.

None of the above happened, thankfully. He landed safely without incident and made his way through the shadows of the buildings along the streets, cutting through buildings here and there to avoid being traced. He made good time and slowed his pace as he got to the spot he'd specified, his hands going up in a surrender stance as he slowed before the corner.]

Aang? It's me.

Can I come around the corner?

[Aang remains perched on the corner of the roof, looking down at Bucky as he approaches. Luckily, it's a short building, so Aang can still hear and see Bucky perfectly fine. It doesn't look like he's brandishing a weapon, but that's not what Aang was worried about anyway. He's more worried that this isn't really Bucky, and he's just a clever trick by the Capitol to get Aang to talk about the rebellion.

But Aang will be careful. There's too much at stake not to be.]

You can come around the corner, but I'm up here, not over there. [He peeks his head down so that Bucky will be able to see him, but not reach him. Aang's ready to run if he has to.]

[ Bucky paused and lowered his hands as he stepped away from the wall to look up to the roof.

Of course, that made way more sense than hanging around an alley for Aang.]

Got it.

[Bucky looks around, he didn't want to stand out in the middle of the path, that was way too open, but he'd prefer to be able to see Aang when they talked. He couldn't fly and there didn't appear to be a ladder or anything.

There was a strange half-wall along the back that could give him a three-foot boost, but it was still too short for him to just jump from. Maybe.

Supposedly, he might be able to make it. He moved to the half wall and climbed to the top of it to continue inspecting his options. He could do this. Right? Rogers and James could do this, supposedly he could too. Assuming the Capitol didn't fuck up and, considering the last time they'd tried this experiment they'd gotten Stevie killed, he could be on borrowed time for all he knew. His survival could have been a fluke or a success. He didn't really have the luxury to think this much about it.

Either he was going to manage this or he was going to fall, look like a complete moron and likely break a rib.

Bucky walked back a few feet on the wall, then turned and dashed back, jumping at the last moment to kick against the wall and lunch himself up enough to catch the edge of the roof and climb up. Good. Cool. He hated this. Still didn't have time to think about the changes the Capitol had forced on him, though. For now, he was on the roof and no broken bones.

He sat with a huff and gave a small wave at Aang.]

Hey. Didn't want to ask you down, but I figured this would be easier to talk.

[Whaaaaaat just happened?

Aang's pretty sure none of the people actually from Panem have superhuman abilities unless the Capitol messed with them. It's possible that Panem Bucky was tampered with after his Games, but why would the Capitol do that when they were going to just arrest him right after he got home?

Unless it's District 13 that did it.]

How'd you do that?

[Aang is on edge. He'd expected to be meeting someone who didn't have powers, and he's not sure how welcome this surprise is.]

[Bucky puts up his hands a moment to try and calm Aang.]

It's okay. I think. At the end of the war, we all did a massive run on the Capitol. Sam and I broke into one of the science and experimentation facilities to rescue some friends of his. We got cornered as we were escaping and I used myself to give the others a chance to escape. They caught me and...did something. I'm pretty sure I know what, but considering the last time they tried it on someone from Panem and he didn't make it, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Supposedly, it worked and I've got a lot of the same skills Rogers and James- the other Bucky had.

[His hand came to rest on his chest.]

I swear I'm still me, Sam rescued me before they could put anything in my head, I can just do a little more than others born in Panem can now.

[Experimenting on a prisoner seems like the kind of thing the Capitol would do, and it's not like this Bucky is attacking him, so Aang will tentatively accept that while making a mental note to be extra cautious. He knows what his Bucky can do. If this becomes a conflict, Aang should be careful to stay far out of arm's reach.]

How can you be so sure there's nothing in your head?

[Maybe this isn't a particularly nice thing to ask, but Aang has to know. It's not like Aang knew that they stuck something in his head before someone explained that's how he lost his powers. The Capitol likes messing with heads, literally. If Bucky was unconscious, they could have put a camera behind his eye, or a chip in his brain, anything that could turn him into an asset of their own.]

When was there a war?

[That's more important to hear about than the powers, anyway. Aang wants to hear about the supposed war and the death of Snow.]

[He doesn't and that's the worst part of all of this. What if the Capitol stuck a kill switch or something in his head? What if something triggers it even with the Capitol gone? What if there's some sort of control chip that Atroma could now access?]

Because Sam Wilson said there wasn't. He performed a scan and said there wasn't anything new in there. I don't trust the Capitol's word, I trust Sams.

[But what if it had been mental and he couldn't remember it? What if they'd done some sort of conditioning? He'd only been in there for a day and a half, did they really have enough time for that kind of thing in those conditions? It's not like he'd be able to know until it was activated and there was no way Sam could detect it if it was all in Bucky's head. That thought scared him most about all of this. Something could be wrong and he'd have zero idea until he'd hurt someone. For once as far as he could remember, he wished James were there. Winter was, but it wasn't the same. Not yet. He wasn't going to breathe a word of this to anyone either way.

The war, though...]

It ended a couple weeks ago for me. It's been going on for the last...I guess it was almost a year. Eight months or so of all-out war between the rebellion and the Capitol across all twelve districts. We were finally able to breach one of the arenas after our practice run with the new district kids and created all out chaos. We escaped with who we could and rescued as many as possible with each battle. I'll answer any of your questions.

[Aang knows that not all of the Capitol's tricks would show up on a scan. He doesn't trust that they didn't do something to James, that he's completely himself. But there's little Aang can do about that at the moment.

What's more interesting is the talk about a war. Aang doesn't trust that either. He trusts nothing at the moment.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't have questions. Many, many questions, but only one that really stands out above all the others.]

Who won the war?

[Well that, at least, was easy to answer.]

Panem did.

[Not the tyrannical Capitol and not Thirteen, rotten at the supports as it had ended up being. Webb was supposedly doing a, good job as mayor in Coin's place, but she'd always been further in Alma's pocket than Bucky himself had been; he still didn't really trust her. But Terezi did.

Everything with Coin, what happened with the rebel Capitolites, he'd likely never stop blaming himself for not noticing sooner.]

Last I knew, talks were being held among the districts and native-turned offworlders as to what sort of government should replace Snows. Something involving a vote.

[Aang bounces on the balls of his feet. He rubs his hands together. He frowns at the ground. All nervous gestures, radiating uncertainty and discomfort.]

...They know that I'd want to hear that.

[He wants to believe it, but that wanting is dangerous. The Capitol could be trying to lure him into a false sense of security.

And yet he still wants to ask questions.]

What about all the Districter kids in the arena? What happened to them?

[He sighs but nods.]

It is, if the Capitol were around and trying to trick you, they'd want you to hear everything went wonderfully. I can tell you it didn't, it was hard fought and hard won. We lost a lot of people.

But that's all I can offer you, I don't have any better proof than my word and my information.

As for the kids...Coin had them, for a time. Played a game with the Tributes in Thirteen with them where she had them choose between the kids lives and supplies and a better position in the war. The tributes chose the children, of course. They were being kept in District Eleven during the war, they couldn't go home until the dust settled. As far as I know, they were taken back to their homes about a week ago...but I couldn't tell you what kind of a home they were going back to. War hit every one of the districts. There were district casualties.

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Video/Action- First Pirate Transmission

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