[center][b][h1][color=BLACK]T H E  W I N T E R  S O L D I E R[/color][/h1][/b][b]James Buchanan Barnes[/b], Age 47 (b. 1921)
[b][sub]Based in Moscow, Russia[/sub][/b]
[color=gray][sub]Active since approximately 1946[/sub][/color]

[img]http://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/WinterSoldier_1_CoverDelOttoVariant.jpg[/img][/center]
[INDENT][h3][color=BLACK]Character Concept[/color][/h3][hr]
[color=999999][i]James "Bucky" Barnes was born to George and Winnifred Barnes in the early 1920s, into the roaring twenties. However, the earliest memories the boy would have would be of the newly minted Great Depression. Bucky and his family lived in Brooklyn. When the Stock Market crashed his mother lost her job. It placed undue stress on the family, leaving George as the only breadwinner. Adding to the stress was Rebecca Barnes, born just one year after 1929. However due to his position as a Captain in the Army, George was rarely at home. Bucky's first memory was standing in a bread-line for food with his mother and infant sister. 

When Bucky was ten his mother passed away. At first it appeared there would be no hope for the young Barnes children. George could not bring them to an Army base, no money for a care taker and without any family nearby to take care of them, the situation was looking grim. However, Bucky's best friend's mother was a kind woman. When Sarah Rogers heard of their plight, despite having no money either, she agreed to take in the children when George was stationed at Camp Leigh. 

Food was scarce, money was non-existent and Bucky did all he could to earn anything he could. He sold newspapers, shined shoes, and occasionally ran with the wrong sorts on the wrong side of town. Any extra scratch Bucky came up with he passed on to Ms. Rogers. By the time Bucky was fourteen, his father had been promoted to Major. Bucky himself was now employed full time and contributing directly to Rebecca's and Steve's welfare. He was also getting into the dangerous sort of trouble. 

One night in 1935 George witnessed Bucky coming home late and bruised. It was obvious to the military man Bucky had been in a fight. He knew the rumors were true of Bucky falling in with unsavory types. After he confronted Bucky, who was unrepentant, he contacted one of his friends at the Army base. Major Joseph Samon agreed to let the boy into Camp Leigh, under the table, on a semi-permanent basis in order to "straighten" the boy out. However when the teen showed great promise in both physical and mental aspects of soldiering, the Major decided to make it official. He added Bucky to a newer program designed to train the new generation into better soldiers. 

In 1937, Japan attacked China. Tensions growing in the Global Arena prompted the military to send Bucky and the other teens he was training with to work with the British SAS. Leaving behind his family and Steve was hard. But Bucky was nothing but adaptable. In England he honed the skills the Army gave him. He also excelled in sniping and infiltration. The work was hard but rewarding and was well on it's way to turning Bucky into a fine soldier. When Germany attacked Poland Bucky was sent back to the US. 

Tragedy struck the Barnes family once more in 1939. Major George Barnes was killed in a training exercise at Camp Leigh. Operations in the US had been ramped up with the start of what was beginning to look like another great conflict. Bucky and Major Samon agreed to send Rebecca to boarding school in Illinois, nearby Samon's family. Bucky couldn't in good conscious leave Rebecca to Sarah to take of any longer. However he still made sure to send the Rogers money, despite receiving marching orders. 

Bucky would not see Steve, nor Rebecca much in the long months of 1940. He would write to them every chance he could. He worried a lot about Steve who very seldom wrote him back. He wouldn't hear from Steve for another three months after his last missive and feared his friend had died. He briefly entertained the idea that he would see Steve again as he was pinned down with his unit in a trench somewhere in Europe. That was, until they were saved by CAPTAIN AMERICA.

By 1941 Bucky had earned his place by Captain America's side. Steve had requested Bucky personally and the brass had allowed it to keep their sole super soldier happy. The main focus of Captain America's unit was to hunt down and stop Hydra. In 1944 Bucky was captured by Hydra and was experimented upon until his rescue. The now twenty-three year old noticed odd things about himself. He healed faster, tired less quickly, ate more but gained weight slower- if at all. Bucky, still traumatized by his captivity kept mum about the changes.

Things were coming to a head. It was 1945 and Captain America and his team had nearly finished off Hydra. Red Skull had one more ace up his sleeve. Bombs were placed in a plane which was set to crash into a major US target. Code breakers had been unable to discover where. Which meant if the drone plane took off it would be nearly impossible to stop it. Bucky and Captain America managed to take down the plane, but not before Bucky was ejected from the plane into the English Channel. Later Captain America would be lost somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean. 

There were searches over the years to find and recover their bodies. No one was aware that Bucky had fallen out of the plane earlier, they never looked for his body in the right spot. He would have been lost for his water grave if not for circumstance. A German U-boat in the channel picked up his body. They nearly left him but Colonel Vasily Karpov recognized the young man. The Colonel knew of the experiments that had been preformed. After having retrieved Barnes from the frozen depths, he realized the man was of no use. Unaware Barnes was still alive he sold Bucky to the Russians, a deal to help him escape War Crime charges. 

The Russians however knew what they had gotten. They revived the man and replaced his mangled arm. Then they worked on twisting him into their perfect super soldier. You take a man and torture him long enough, he'll break. When the victim has a version of the super soldier serum running through their veins? There was so much more a man could take and survive. With the aid of cutting edge neural sciences they twisted Bucky enough to mold him into something new. Thus the Winter Soldier was born. A perfect living weapon.

The fifties was a time of growth and lingering strife. Cold was the war between Russia and the Western countries. Russia and the US were locked in a tight war of spies. The Winter Soldier quickly became a ghost story spies told themselves as enemy lines blurred and vanished. Ledgers in hidden rooms listed supposed kills though most of it was speculation. 

Just as it does for all men, time passes. The Winter Soldier was allowed more autonomy within Hydra's organization. He taught occasionally at the Red Room, training Black Widows. He was never put on ice like in the movies. Instead he lived in Moscow and held as normal of a life as he could. The conditioning kept him from questioning his orders and from thinking about his past. But nothing holds forever. Cracks were beginning to form in the Winter Soldier. Undetected by those sent to watch and spy. For no one was better than the perfect weapon.[/i][/color]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUuI3oHQfm8[/youtube][/center]
The general outline is redemption. A quest to undo some of the ill that he has caused others and to find some measure of peace within himself. I see the first arc of the story being James finding himself after so long. Of course healing isn't going to be a straight and narrow path. He will have to fight for it even as he's being hunted. I want to see him put others before himself in his quest for redemption. 

Arc 1:
James finally decides to break free of Hydra.

Arc 2:
On the run from Hydra, trying to regain memories and find out what was done to him. The possible debut of Bohusk.

Arc 3: 
Hopefully shenanigans with others. If not I'll delve into James trying to right some of the wrongs he committed as the Winter Soldier. 

[h3][color=BLACK]Key Notes[/color][/h3][hr]
[Hider=Timeline][i][list][*][color=BLACK]1921[/color][indent]James Barnes was born[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1929[/color][indent]Rebecca Barnes was born[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1931[/color][indent]Winnifred Barnes passed away
Bucky and Rebecca go to live with Sarah Rogers and her son, Steve[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1935[/color][indent]Bucky is sent to Camp Leigh unofficial to "straighten" him out[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1936[/color][indent]Bucky is official part of the Army as an initiative to train teens into soldiers[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1937[/color][indent]Japan invades China and takes the capital, Nanjing
Bucky and the other initiative teens are sent to England to train with the S.A.S.[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1939[/color][indent]Germany invades Poland
Bucky and the other initiative teens are pulled back to the US
Major Barnes dies in a training accident
Bucky is sent overseas to aid in the war
Steve Rogers debuts as Captain America[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1940[/color][indent]Steve Rogers pulls Bucky into the 26th Infantry Regiment[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1944[/color][indent]Bucky is captured by Hydra and experimented upon
The 26th Infantry join Wonder Woman and the Wonder-Men in Operation Overlord[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1945[/color][indent]Both Bucky and Steve are presumed dead after stopping Hydra
Bucky was picked up by German Colonel Vasily Karpov
Colonel Vasily Karpov sells what he assumed is a corpse to the Russians[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1945+[/color][indent]Bucky is twisted into the Winter Soldier[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1952[/color][indent]The Winter Soldier kidnaps Maria Trovaya and delivers her to the Red Room [/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]1963[/color][indent]The Winter Soldier assassinated JFK[/indent]
[*][color=BLACK]19XX[/color][indent]Put event here[/indent][/list][/i][/hider]
[Hider=Supporting Cast][indent][color=BLACK]Rebecca Proctor[/color]
[indent]James' sister. She currently lives in Illinois with her husband, Scott. She had two children, Ida and Clark, who also had children. There is a grandson named Scott, after his grandfather. And a granddaughter named Kimberly.[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Joseph Samon[/color]
[indent]Now retired. Lives in Illinois with his wife. Considers Rebecca one of his own children.[/indent][/indent]
[indent][color=BLACK]Alexander Pierce[/color]
[indent]The current Secretary of Defense. Secretly a Hydra member.[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Valentina Allegra de Fontaine[/color]
[indent]A Russian sleeper agent in S.H.I.E.L.D. She has a dual American-Italian citizenship. She specializes in Espionage. She truly works for Hydra.[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Red Skull[/color]
[indent]Currently believed to be dead. Killed in WWII.[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Silver Fox, AKA Kayla Silverfox[/color]
[indent]Member of the CIA's Team X. Truly Hydra. Mostly invested in the "mutants"[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Black Widow, Various[/color]
[indent]Trained in the Red Room, the Black Widows are the best women the Soviets have to offer in their war against the West.[/indent]
[color=BLACK]Beak, AKA Barnell Bohusk[/color]
[indent]A young mutant in the Netherlands.[/indent][/indent][/hider]

[h3][color=BLACK]References / Sample Post[/color][/h3][hr]
[indent][indent]Inhale. Exhale.

Cold, crisp air bit the Winter Soldier's nose as he breathed. The rifle in his hand was perfectly placed. The scope slowly tracked the target as they talked to a group of men in US Army uniforms. He didn't have audio so he could only guess as to what was being said. The context he had was limited. The United States was scared. Russia had successfully detonated an atomic bomb. Intel gathered said the US was again moving forward with creation of 'Super'. Something to counter the growing might of Russia. 

It was a long process, discovering where the scientists working on 'Super' were located. The President of the United States was rarely predictable in his movements. And the Soviets had no other leads as to who was heading the project. 

As if to mock, the military men and the president vanished out of sight. Possibly to a more secure location. The Winter Soldier remained immobile for another two hours before finally moving. He swiftly dissembled the rifle and stored it back in it's nondescript case. He rolled his left shoulder, feeling the heavy metal arm shift and relieve sore muscles. He picked up his jacket and slipped into it.

The rendezvous for the Winter Soldier wasn't close. The intel he had gathered would be passed along to the proper spies. A brief image of girls, no- women, training popped into his mind. Seductresses, spies, sleeper agents. They all were in place to begin infiltrating whatever secrets these "Super" scientists were hiding. 

The Winter Soldier turned off the TV set, picked up his hardbacked case, and put a hut upon his head. He shut and locked the door behind himself. His gloved hands leaving no trace at all that he had ever been there. Perhaps he really was a ghost.

An eerie smile graced the man's lips as he exited the building and got into a parked car. The radio burst into life. 

[i]Don't let the stars get in your eyes,
Don't let the moon break your heart.[/i]

Idly his fingers tapped at the steering wheel. Letting the voice of Perry Como drift over him. American country music was very different than Russian. Not something he was used to hearing. Music was not actively encouraged. Though he was allowed far more freedom than most Russian operatives who worked on foreign soil. 

The Winter Soldier flicked off the radio with a grimace. The errant thought of freedom sat poorly. He neither wanted, not desired music. Only to be of service to his country. 

The car rolled up to an unassuming brownstone. A smiling woman was out in the lawn playing with a small boy. Ascetically she was very attractive. Upon hearing the car she scooped the boy into her arms. Faintly the man could hear her chide the child for trying to run off towards the vehicle. 

The Winter Soldier exited the car and smiled at the woman. She released the boy.

"Oh Mike. So good for you to drop by." The woman didn't talk any louder than normal. A perfect image of a woman seeing an anticipated fiend. "I'm so sorry Carl forgot it at home and made you drive all the way from the city."

"Not a problem ma'am." The Winter Soldier tipped his hat. His accent perfectly American North East. 

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" The woman smoothed her skirts. "You must be tried after the long drive."

"It would be my pleasure." He shut the car door and ruffled the boy's head before following the mother inside.

The house was cozy, in the way well maintained small houses were oft described. The young boy took off with vigor for the living room, babbling something about cowboys. His mother had vanished into the kitchen. The Winter Soldier doffed his hat on the hat tree and slipped a paper out of his pocket. He casually placed it on the hall table before moving to the living room.

After the coffee was finished the woman found him on the floor, toys strewn about, playing with her son. The small boy was bouncing up and down as he sat on the floor, happily describing why the man had lost to the Cowboys.

"Coffee." The woman passed the Soldier a cup. 

"Thank you. I've heard you make a super cup of coffee." He replied before he took a small sip. It was bitter without any milk, cream or sugar. "Carl always brags. He also mentioned the two of you were thinking about taking a vacation to see the Capital."

The woman had taken a seat on the sofa, smiling at her son as he passed her a small toy pistol. "It's almost time for your show. Why don't you go make sure your room is clean." She then turned her attention back to her guest. "Oh, we haven't decided yet. Do you know of any good locations?"

"One or two. Maybe give New Mexico a try. Get out of the hustle and bustle for a bit."

The woman laughed. "Oh my. I don't know what I'd do outside of the big city. But I'll let Carl know your recommendation. Do you have family there?" 

"When I was young we used to live in Los Alamos. But we moved a long time ago. You never know though, while the Metropolis is great, the desert has it's perks too."

She made appreciative sounds into her coffee. The Winter Soldier put down his now empty cup on the coffee table. "But I should really get back." 

"Oh yes." The woman exclaimed as if she had forgotten. "Let me go get it and you can be on your way." She bustled off to grab a small package. 

"Do tell Carl not to be so forgetful." The smiled at the man. 

"Of course. Take care." The Soldier put his hat back on, tucked the package under his arm and disappeared off into the day. Indeed, just another ghost story to tell.[/indent][/indent]

[/INDENT]