BARNES, JAMES BUCHANAN "BUCKY" // THE WINTER SOLDIER

Physical Description: 

James is built like an Olympic athlete from his years in the Army and his training by the KGB. While he has broad shoulders, he isn't overly muscular. Instead, his body is lean and toned, aiding him in the agility, speed, and strength he displays when he fights in close combat. This enables him to move quickly for both offense and defense and gives him a distinct advantage over those who are much larger in size. His body is also covered in scars, some larger than others, from various injuries he's suffered over his lifetime, whether they were from when he was a kid and got into fights or that one time he fell out of a tree and broke his arm (his own fault really), or later on in the Army when he was out on the front lines. He still has scars from the time he was imprisoned, held by HYDRA for them to conduct experiments on, and those are a painful reminder of what they had done which would change the rest of his life forever.

When he was younger, his dark brown, wavy hair was short and scruffy, only eventually tamed by hair products and a good military cut when he first joined the Army. Since then, he has let his hair grow out so that it now reaches just above his shoulders. His skin is of medium complexion and he often sports a slight five o'clock shadow. While he is not very old physically, one can tell by looking at his face that he is a man who has been through great ordeals. Very faint dark circles tend to appear under his eyes more often than not and he has a very thin scar that runs along his jawline from a moment during his training with the KGB where he didn't block his opponent's attack quick enough.

His eyes are easily the most telling trait about him, about what he used to be, and the thing he has become. The color never changed; a deep hazel that seems to draw you into their depths. However, where once they were warm, inviting, and proud, they have since hardened into cold, dark depths that are constantly calculating exactly how to defeat an opponent, assess a situation, and eliminate his targets. They say the eyes are like windows to the soul and that may have once been the case, but now they are the eyes of a trained killer. However, that is not to say that it's impossible for them to reflect something other than this. There have been a few and extremely rare times that just for a moment, they reflected the inner demons James has struggled with in the past. Two moments in particular where his eyes had betrayed that he had been compromised, that he had begun remembering, and the pain and suffering mixed with confusion were quite clear. Of course, reprogramming would always take care of that, extinguishing the light from his eyes and ensure he remained simply a tool and a very dangerous one at that.

Personality:

Snarky, sarcastic, outgoing, protective, loyal, determined, over-confident, brave, loving, cocky, charismatic, stubborn, trouble-maker...all these and more could sum up who James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was. Was...that is a key term when describing the man he used to be, before life events would turn him into what he was now: a tool of the KGB. When James was younger, he constantly acted out in an attempt to gain his father's attention. After his mother had died, his father had withdrawn from the world, more or less, and James suffered for it. He joined a gang and got neck deep into trouble between stealing things, bullying other kids in the neighborhood, and vandalizing local property. His attitude towards life was dismal and he hated everything. No matter what he did, his father never seemed to pay attention, and it only lead him being more of a daredevil, attempting more difficult and dangerous feats to try and get his father to notice him. During this time, James' temper would constantly flare and he would start fights over the littlest of things, even something as simple as someone walking in front of him without acknowledgment. James was not in a good place, but he had began sliding down the slippery slope and there was no rope for him to hold onto.

After he was sent to a summer military camp, James' personality took a major shift. He broke away from the gang. James became more responsible, more dependable, and was trying to be a better person. James began taking more of a leadership role around the local community and he discovered a love for martial arts, relishing in the sense of accomplishment as he began quickly rising through the different levels. He had always loved challenges and he thrived on the adrenaline that they provided. However, his life would be greatly impacted when his father died from a tragic parachuting accident during basic training for the Armed Forces, which cemented a fear of heights that James had had ever since he had fallen out of a tree when he had been six. This, paired with a fear of deep water and drowning after an incident where his old gang members decided to shove him off a high diving board and hold him underwater when he tried to resurface. James grew to despise them for their bullying and their crude behavior towards the community and would often stand up against them whenever they tried to pull something. However, after his father's death, James withdrew into a depression, something that he became prone to doing often, and began pulling away from all the activities that he had enjoyed and people in general. He became angry and short-tempered, and wanted nothing to do with anyone.


Another shift in the development of James would be when he would meet a boy who would become his best friend and essentially the brother he had never had, Steve Rogers. The boy's goodness would rub off on him, helping mold him into a better person, and he learned to control his anger. James was able to bounce back from his depression and became someone everyone could look up to and count on to have their back. He flourished in social environments and was quite the charmer, loving to dance and more or less keeping a running tally on how many girls he could get to dance with him. James was more light-hearted and still caused trouble, but not in the damaging way. He loved playing pranks but never let them get too far out of control. While James was not necessarily a leader, many would look to him for advice (especially on the ladies), and he did what he could to help them. He never embarrassed easily and was always up for anything. Loving challenges and anything that provided a thrill, James learned how to knife-throw while at the orphanage and began to compete in local martial arts competitions. He was a hard-worker when he wanted to be, but many times he'd let laziness or procrastination take over and then have to scramble to catch up. This would happen more often than not when he'd let an evening party or social event take precedence over doing homework for school, and would often rely on the other kids in his classes to help keep him from failing.

"No matter what, I'll follow you to the end of the line"

However, no matter whatever outward appearance he might project socially, deep-down James had become someone people could depend on. He was extremely loyal to his friends, never fearing to face down leadership or other kids to protect them even if it caused him to be punished in their stead. He made sure that his friends knew that he would always be there for them, no matter what happened. James stood up for what he believed in and never backed down. In that aspect, his stubbornness worked to his advantage and while there were times he could be a bit self-centered and cocky, his friends knew that he'd never fail them. They were the ones who helped ground him and keep him from getting too big of a head, which, for the most part, worked, but James was not someone to ever go with the grain. If he could do something outside the box, he would, and never look back.

After joining the Armed Forces, wanting to honor his father, and the subsequent events that would follow, James became firmly grounded. After everything he went through, the heartbreak of not being able to save the lives of his friends and the experiments that would be conducted on him while he was a prisoner of war, James aged considerably. This wasn't a physical age necessarily, although his once youthful face did gain a few more lines than it should have prematurely, but it was most definitely a mental age. He was no longer that cocky, loud, fun-loving, jovial, naive teenager he had been before the war. Now in his place was a man who had been through too much, more so than any young man should have to, and his eyes had been opened to the horrors of the world. It would take time but he would slowly regain some of that former nature back, but James was never the same after that. He still enjoyed going out and doing things, but he was more withdrawn and serious, preferring solitude over the company of friends, and even at the bar he would be seen drinking by himself rather than at a table with others. The torture that he had endured at the hands of the Germans still haunted him, causing him to have constant nightmares and flashbacks to what he went through, and the last thing he wanted to do was bring anyone else down with him.

However, being out in the field with the Howling Commandos helped James considerably. While he remained quieter and more serious, he was able to begin cracking more jokes. Things that James never lost was his loyalty to his friends and his dependability. He found it difficult to forgive himself for the men he had lost while out on operations, but with the help of his friends and their current missions, he was able to honor them by taking out the organizations that had caused their deaths. One thing that James was extremely good at was revenge, and he never hesitated to do what was necessary, even if it meant putting himself in danger. Where some would show reluctance jumping into a situation, James would embrace it whole-heartedly.

And then came the fall....and the rescue that would strip James of everything he had been. The good man he had once been was nothing more than a memory.

Now, there is very little of the man James used to be. Deep down at his core, there is still something of James that clings to life, desperate not to be extinguished, and no matter how many times they reprogram his mind, it still manages to hold on. There were only a few moments in his life where his humanity began to return to him, where he began to remember who he was, but those moments were ended as soon as his handlers discovered that he was on the verge of going rogue. They had to maintain control of their 'pet', no matter what, and the last thing they wanted was him to turn on them. He had been extremely useful to them in many operations and even if that meant wiping him back to a clean slate (although he never forgot his training and acquired skills), they would do that, thereby shattering whatever fragile pieces of his humanity still remained. It has turned him into a cold, ruthless killer, one who only focuses on the mission and his intended targets, and never hesitates to carry out what must be done. His eyes betray nothing of his emotions; they have become hard and cold as the rest of him. There is nothing else that matters, only the mission. He is a tool to be used by the KGB and now HYDRA to carry out whatever needs to be done. The James Barnes of the past is only a distant dream, a wisp of memory that has been suppressed deep down to his core. Now there is only the Winter Soldier.

Skills:

James has a plethora of skills at his disposal, some gained from his time in the military and others obtained from the KGB when he was the Winter Soldier. He was a natural born fighter and these programs only assisted in helping refine the basic skills he already had. James is an extremely dangerous fighter and his martial arts skills and hand-to-hand combat skills are top notch. During his basic training, he was taught various forms of martial arts, and continued to hone them during the war. It wasn’t until he was brought under the KGB, re-programmed as the Winter Soldier, and sent to their training facility that his skills truly began to shine, studying various forms of martial arts that built upon the knowledge that he already had. James has also studied acrobatics, reaching Olympic-level abilities, allowing him to quickly maneuver around opponents, slip in and out of tricky situations, and enable him to hold his own against bigger and tougher opponents. His strength, agility, endurance, and dexterity are easily on the level of an Olympic athlete, if not more so due to the Super Soldier serum and his bionic arm.

There is yet a target he has to miss unintentionally. During his basic training when he was enlisted in the Army, he was one of their sharpest shooters, spending hours and hours learning how to use and care for various firearms so that no matter what situations he would come into in the future, he would be ready. This knowledge and his skills came in handy once he was deployed over to Europe and there were many times when he was able to take out a sniper from a fair distance because of how much he had trained, enabling him to save countless lives. Having spent so much time studying a variety of firearms, it enables him to quickly learn new firearms and utilize them to their fullest advantage. He has furthered his training and fine-tuned these skills while in training by the KGB and is easily one of their top snipers.

James, however, is not only skilled when it comes to firearms, but also with throwing knives. He can throw them with deadly accuracy and has been known to be able to throw a knife from concealment with enough force and accuracy to pierce the heart of a German soldier through his heavy duty garments even in conditions where there are high winds. When he was younger, growing up in the orphanage, there were countless hours where he had to entertain himself, and while throwing around a baseball was fun, he became intrigued at the idea of knife throwing when he saw one of the older kids throwing knives at a nearby tree for fun. James had always been one to challenge himself, eager to learn new skills, and this time was no different. He managed to convince the older boy into teaching him and picked up process of how to throw the knives rather quickly, studying every move and motion in order to figure out how to throw them with deadly accuracy. The more he practiced, the better he got, and to this day, it is one of his strongest skills. Through additional training by the Russians, James learned to master and implement several ways of silently eliminating sentries or taking out targets with various bladed weapons or even his bare hands, making him extremely lethal. 

When he was enlisted in the Army, James was selected for special operations training, which would provide the foundation for him to become extremely skilled in both combat and espionage. This training was extremely rigorous, putting him in extreme conditions and forcing him to learn how to survive on the bare minimums. It was here that James learned how to set up a sniper's nest, being able to stay concealed and in place for days at a time with minimal supplies. He developed skills in stealth, demolitions, survival, tracking, as well as being able to deduce a person's actions, ways of thinking, and their future moves while in combat. He constantly studies his surroundings, taking in every aspect of his current situation, enabling him to figure out what he can and cannot do in whatever position he's placed in. These skills have enabled him to win multiple fights as well as take out targets before they have a chance to react.

Also key to his espionage training was learning multiple languages. Ever since he was young, James had always been interested in learning another language but never had a chance to study it formally. He learned a few words, here and there, but it would be when he was turned into the Winter Soldier that he would become fluent in several languages. When he awoke initially after being given the bionic arm, he truly believed that he was Russian and was completely loyal to the KGB. In addition to being able to speak fluent Russian, he was also able to speak English, German, Japanese, and some French due to mental implants given by the technicians at the Red Room facility. With all of these former and newly-learned techniques and training, James is easily one of the most lethal assassins the KGB has ever trained. They saw him as being very useful when needing someone to infiltrate the American public, and he has an uncanny ability to be able to blend into his surroundings, undetected, and becomes whatever they need him to become in order to carry out the mission.

Special Abilities:

James is for the most part human, but thanks to being given a form of the Super Soldier serum when he was held as a prisoner of war during WWII, his strength, speed, stamina, metabolism, and longevity were increased exponentially, giving him an advantage over humans and enabling him to be on par with some of the other superhumans and mutants. The majority of his skills come from his training under the KGB and this serum merely enhanced his physical form. Pairing this with his bionic arm, he can survive falls and impacts that would normally kill an average human. It was the main reason why he didn't perish after he fell from the train explosion into the icy depths of the river and was able to be revived later by the Russians.

Special Equipment:

The bionic arm that replaced his left arm after he had lost it in the explosion that had nearly cost him his life is the one thing that stands out the most about him, and one that identifies him as the Winter Soldier other than the vast array of weaponry that he carries. This arm gives him superhuman strength and enhanced reaction time. It is much stronger than a normal human arm and gives him a significant advantage when fighting. He can use it to block bullets, knives, swords, etc, almost like a mini shield, and can crush fragile human bones with ease. This is limited to that specific arm, however, and his other arm is not nearly as strong. The arm houses different sensors which allow him to pass through security such as metal detectors without setting them off. Silver plated with a red star emblem on the top courtesy of the Russians who owned him, it is something well-known to many around the world. If you have the Winter Soldier coming after you, be prepared to die, because he never leaves his targets alive.

James was born in 1923 and the first few years of his life were probably quite wonderful but when he was only three, his mother became extremely ill and death stole her from both husband and only son. The next twelve years of his life would not be as wonderful but without them, James would not have become the man he was before the Russians turned him into the Winter Soldier. His father became withdrawn, preferring to spend his time at the firing ranges and at work instead of with his son. It wasn't that he was a bad father necessarily or he didn't love James, but after the death of his wife, it hit him hard and he had gone into a deep depression. The neighbors would often be the ones who came over and checked on James, making sure he had food and got a chance to play with the other kids in the neighborhood (which wasn't exactly the safest of neighborhoods but it wasn't absolutely horrible), but around ten years old, James began acting out. He got into a local gang, tended to get into fights with the neighborhood kids more often than not, and was part of the gang's contraband smuggling business, learning at a very young age how to lie, cheat, steal, and sneak in and out of wherever he needed. What had started out as merely a vie for his father's attention was slowly snowballing out of control. It wasn't until one of his father's military friends caught James trying to steal food out of nearby gas station that this would all come to light.

Needless to say, it got him attention but not the kind of attention that he truly wanted. His father sent him to a summer military camp when he was twelve and in a few short months, James turned himself around. At first it was reluctantly; he rebelled against the system, caused fights at camp, and refused to put forth any effort, but there was no way he was going to be able to get out of it and slowly but surely he grudgingly began to participate in the team building activities, the leadership classes, and training exercises. It was here that James learned how to take apart and clean small handguns, become organized, more physically fit, and how to work well with others. There were a few times he was given the role as the leader in events where he proved that he could lead others in positive ways, getting them to work together to solve a problem, and developing that bond within the team, but he preferred to be at least one step back, helping to support whoever led the activity rather than be the leaders himself.

When he returned home, he broke ties with the gang, and tried to do better with his life, helping people around the neighborhood, working on the community, and focusing on school. Leaving the gang had repercussions of course but he had learned basic hand-to-hand combat during the summer training camp and was able to defend himself when they would gang up on him. He began to see those people for who they truly were and vowed never to be someone like that or tolerate people who bullied others. James discovered a small dojo only a few blocks away from his house and began to study basic martial arts, wanting to be able to defend himself and others. His father made an effort to spend more time with James and their relationship began to strengthen. However, that would not last forever because only a few months after James returned home from camp, his father was sent to basic training where a parachuting exercise would claim his life. James had always been terrified of heights and this only cemented that fear within him.

James became a ward of the state, having no other living relatives, and was sent to an orphanage. He became withdrawn again, falling into depression after the loss of his father, and began to go back to his old ways before camp. It wouldn't be until he met a boy at the orphanage who was older than him but looked much younger that James' life would once again be flipped inside and out. They became inseparable, practically brothers, and would rarely be seen without the other. This was truly a change for the best and James finally left his old ways behind for good. He stood up for others and became a 'big brother' at the orphanage, taking care of the younger kids, and became much more sociable. When America joined the second World War, James, wanting to honor his father and his love for the armed forces, decided to enlist in the United States military. It was hard leaving his best friend and brother, but this was something that meant so much to him and he wanted to do what he could for his country. Even when he had been a delinquent, he had never lost his patriotism for his country, having had it solidly INGRAINED within him by his father.

James excelled during basic training, earning himself top honors within his battalion, and was selected for a special combat training course with British Commandos after being shipped out to England with his unit to prepare for their part in the war. Over the next three months, he would be given the foundation for all of the skills he acquired while in the military to include hand-to-hand combat both with bare hands and weapons, martial arts, sharpshooting, stealth, demolitions, survival, espionage, tracking, and leadership. He began to receive select assignments as a special military operative, becoming a critical asset to his unit. James and his men would fight many battles and he was forced to watch good friends and allies die in the line of fire. While out with his unit in combat, James and his men were captured by the Germans and sent to a HYDRA research and weapons facility. There they were forced to do intense physical labor, working on a secret project for HYDRA, and living in extremely poor conditions. One day, James was prevented from going to 'work' as usual and instead was taken to a research lab where he was forced to endure painful experiments, leaving him extremely weak and delirious. Even when he and his men were finally rescued, the combat and losing the lives of his men paired with what the Germans had done to him during their experiments took a toll on him.

Upon returning to camp, he became part of a small select unit that would be known as the Howling Commandos and be part of multiple operations where they were able to destroy multiple Nazi and HYDRA facilities, putting a severe dent in the organization's plans to take control of the world. Slowly but surely, James began to recover from previous events but he still wasn't exactly the same as he had been before. Having been through so much, he carried the weight of it all on his shoulders. Things were going well until the mission occurred that would nearly claim his life. After boarding a train in an attempt to get to HYDRA leadership, James was caught in an explosion and fell from the moving train to the icy fjords below, and was presumed dead.

However, fate would not be that kind to him. The Russians discovered him completely encased in ice after the war ended and placed him in cyrostasis after realizing that he could potentially be a key asset to them regaining power. He was eventually revived and outfitted with a bionic arm to replace his left arm which he had lost during the train explosion and was trained by the infamous Red Room Academy to become the Soviet spy known as the Winter Soldier. James suffered from amnesia after the accident that had almost cost him his life and the Russians took full advantage of this, using specialized technology to wipe his memory completely to dissolve any trace of who he had been during the war and make him completely loyal to Russia and the perfect assassin. He retained his physical skills that he had acquired but was trained heavily in the art of espionage, becoming one of the most dangerous assassins they had ever created. He became a formidable fighter and a ruthless killer for the KGB, with no trace of the man he had used to be. James trained multiple operatives for the KGB and was one of the top instructors.

James was used to conduct multiple strategic operations around the world and over the next sixty years, he would be responsible for countless assassinations. In between operations, the KGB would place him in suspended animation, and every time he was awakened for a mission, they would put him through extremely painful mind control methods to ensure that he was still completely loyal to them. However, after one of his missions in America, James failed to report back to headquarters and when he was re-captured, they noticed that he was demonstrating mental instability to the point where they weren't sure if he was going to be useful any longer. He was placed into cryo in one of the KGB's storage facilities until many years later when he would finally be found once again. The KGB had disbanded years ago and these storage units had become nothing more than long-forgotten warehouses. He was revived and began to conduct operations for his current handlers. He is a man on a mission and the Winter Soldier will strike again

the kgb had held a tight grip over the winter soldier since before he could remember, and conducting operations for them was just part of daily life.  Other than being placed in stasis when he wasn't needed. today, however, he had been given a mission and after being put through the painful process that always followed his reviving, he had his orders.  This time his target was a man named Matvei who had dug too deep into information that he was not privy to and now was set to be eliminated. If anyone got in his way, the Winter Soldier was to eliminate them as well. 

Cool and calm, he had spent the past few hours in the nest he had built on a rooftop in downtown berlin across from the building where his targets would be that evening. He had already been given all of the information he needed (their appearances, their locations, their movements etc) and required nothing else. It would be a simple enough hit and then he would return to report operation completion and await his next set of orders. There was no emotional value that he obtained from these missions. He drew no pleasure from killing others, it was simply what needed to be done, and keeping himself detached from his actions was what he had been trained to do. Whether or not these targets had family members or some sort of personal connections to another human being was not of consequence and soon they would be removed from the world.

Snipers were trained to remain in their nests for hours, even days depending on what the operation was, and the Winter Soldier had had his share of assassinations so this was all too familiar territory. Armed to the teeth, he had a vast array of weapons at his disposal, the most signature piece of all being the bionic, metal arm that had replaced his left arm long before he could even remember. A black tactical mask covered the lower half of his face and his eyes were darkened to help prevent glare from the setting sun. The blackness framed eyes that were cold and dead to the world, betraying nothing of what he was feeling, and there were times that those eyes were the last thing that anyone ever saw.

Through the sight on his rifle, he monitored the movement of the two men who had just entered the office up on one of the top floors in the building next door. The fact that the men clearly had no qualms about being in an office with large windows either meant they were overly confident that their lives were not threatened or they were too blind to realize what they were doing. Either way, at least one of them would die tonight. The Winter Soldier watched, silent, deadly, and completely hidden from prying eyes. He had already attached a small listening device to one of the windows, practically invisible unless someone knew exactly what they were looking for, and it was a direct feed to his ear-piece. His handlers also had a direct feed to the earpiece he wore and should there be any changes in orders, then that would be how they contacted him.

Observing the two men, he noted Matvei sitting off to the right and the other man, Rob Davis, sitting to the left of the desk. It would only be a matter of time before they moved into position and then with one swift motion all he’d need to do was pull the trigger and it would be done. The Winter Soldier already had a clear exit plan in place knowing exactly which route (or alternate route if need be) he’d need to take to get away from the area as soon as the shots were fired. His ability to observe an entire situation, predict movements from individuals within said situation, and all clear entry and exit points had been something ingrained in him from before he could remember, most likely from former training. It mattered little how he acquired such skills, only that they were extremely useful when carrying out hits. His finger rested casually near the trigger, his bionic arm resting against the cement edge, supporting the rifle in the perfect position.


It wasn't long before his target moved into position and just as he squeezed the trigger, he suddenly found himself falling.  only years of training enabled him to fall as gracefully as one could, rolling into his shoulder and leaping up on his feet, sniper rifle in hand.  he looked around in confusion, his forehead creased as he frowned, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.  This wasn't berlin.  No, as he looked around, he realized he had somehow ended up in new york city.  america.  the winter soldier hadn't been to america in years but this city was familiar enough to him that he knew it from some of it's trademark landmarks.  yet that was impossible.  he touched the earpiece to speak but there was nothing but static.  so he was cut off from his handlers, had somehow been transported to a city halfway across the world, and of course it had been right before he had taken out his target. he began making his way across the rooftop, determined to find out what had just happened because things were about to get very, very interesting.

USER NAME: Elle

YEARS RPING: 15 years

REFERRED TO BY: The all powerful Google.

OTHER: Nothing