Chapter 291: Winter Soldier II
He turned toward Natasha.
"Lucky for me, Nat was already geared up. She had Agni and Rudra with her—those demon weapons Dave gave us. The second Bucky showed up, she brought him down. Quick. Clean."
"We captured him mostly to figure out why he was targeting me," Fury continued. "But once we started digging through his gear, we found evidence... connections. To you, Steve."
Natasha stepped forward, arms crossed, her voice calm but firm.
"He’s not the same. He’s stronger now. Faster. His reflexes—his coordination—it’s like someone re-engineered him. He’s been modified beyond just Hydra’s old tricks."
Shuri nodded from the console, bringing up Bucky’s biological scan.
"Cellular resilience, neural reinforcement... and traces of Super Soldier Serum. Someone upgraded him using the Serum as you Steve."
Shuri’s fingers flew over the controls, deepening the scan results. "His neural inhibitors are artificial. Someone re-engineered his nervous system—microthreaded implants are laced through his brainstem. He’s not being influenced emotionally. He’s being remote-driven."
Bruce’s expression hardened. "That’s why he’s faster, more precise. His reaction time is tuned beyond what even a standard Super Soldier can do. They didn’t just enhance him—they’re piloting him like a weaponized drone with a human core."
Tony muttered under his breath, "That’s next-gen war tech. Whoever’s behind this didn’t just want a better assassin—they wanted deniability. A human guided missile with plausible disconnection."
Natasha looked to Steve. "He didn’t say a word during the attack. Everything about the strike was by the numbers. It’s not just that they’ve rebuilt Bucky—he’s just a template."
"Are you saying Bucky no longer has his own sense of self?" Steve asked quietly, standing near Bucky’s capsule.