6997/He's Just Blowing Off Steam

He's Just Blowing Off Steam
Date of Scene:	19 July 2021
Location:	Somewhere beneath NYC.
Synopsis:	Power Girl pulls Bucky's bacon out of the fire. Hercules brings down the house.
Cast of Characters:	James Barnes, Hercules, Karen Starr

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James Barnes has posed:
    Everyone knows how these things go, big crowds, lots of money passing hands, lots of noise, lots of screaming and, sometimes lots of blood.

    Bucky hasn't lost all his contacts from when he was out in the cold, he doesn't remember ALL of them, but there were times when he was free from HYDRA's control and on the run. He remembers those times more clearly than he does time spent being used as a murder machine. ...and a lot of those times on the run were spent involved in less than legal dealings and activities. Like this 'fight club'.

    The rules are simple. Two men in, one man out. Now that doesn't mean to the death, but at least one person will be carried out.

    Bucky is currently in the ring looking a lot more like The Winter Soldier than Bucky Barnes. The crowd, of course, is a little wild over the idea of the legend being right /there/. They're also a little wild over the idea of someone actually /beating/ him. It hasn't happened yet.

    He's currently about five bouts in, but they haven't all been easily one. The last one actually gave him a run for his money and ended with the whole place on their feet, watching in stunned silence more than once, when they expected the final blow to be landed on HYDRA's former boogeyman. In the end, he came out on top but not without more than a few bumps and bruises to show for it.

    When the next fight is announced and climbs into the ring, the dude is BIG, three times Bucky's size easy. He looks little like someone painted Hellboy purple.

    Buck turns to face the guy and spits blood onto the ground. His lip curls into a snarl...

    ...and the crowd goes NUTS. "Take him down! Take him down! Take him out! Take him out!" It's hard to say who they're cheering for, or against.

Hercules has posed:
    Hercules was undercover. Somewhat. It was less of an effort to conceal who he was, and more of an effort to not have attention drawn immediately to him. As such, he was dressed accordingly. A simply, formfitting white t-shirt beneath a button up, flannel long-sleeve that was quite formfitting on his Olympian physique. Stained, overworked blue jeans and leather hiking boots complete that inconspicuous look.

    He had been watching all of the fights. Of course he recognized the Winter Soldier. He hadn't personally met the man, but he had heard stories of the brainwashed assassin from friends and companions. He glances around the room, uncharacteristically quiet for the Prince of Power, looking to see if anyone stands out that might be a puppet master.

    Deciding that he was not here in any official Hero status, he shrugs and takes a mug of beer that he had ordered. He brings it to his chiselled, bearded face and takes a long drink, watching Barnes as he starts to square off with the purple monstrosity.

James Barnes has posed:
    It becomes clear, pretty quickly, that Bucky likely isn't in TOO much trouble up there, despite the guy being mountain sized. Big Purple is pretty slow an lumbering, so as long as Buck can keep out of his grip? He should be all right in the end.

    That doesn't mean he's not taking a few good lumps when a big old ham fist manages to connect. One of those landing blows even sends him flying across the ring to land on a thud after bouncing off the steel cage. Nnnnngggggggg. He groans and rolls over to spring to his feet just before those ham fists reach down to grab him. In the process of springing, he planted a booted foot to his opponent's chin, moving the mountain of a man back a few steps to give himself room to breathe.

    After a few more moments of dancing back and forth, trading blows that could stop a truck and both men spilling a little more blood, Bucky sees his opening and seizes it. Staggered a little by the last blow landed by that metal left hand, Big Purple over swings, allowing Bucky to duck in under and throw the man off balance with a shoulder blow. Like a snake, he strikes. He ends up on the bigger man's back, that deadly left arm around his thick neck. ...and he's SQUEEZING. Purple's eyes bulge as he claws helplessly at that arm.

    The crowd is going nuts now, chanting, "Finish him!" Someone forgot to tell them this isn't Mortal Kombat.

    Purple falls to his knees, Bucky rides him down.

    "FINISH HIM!"

    Bucky's holding the man upright now, Purple is unconscious.

    "FINISH HIM!"

    Is Bucky going to stop squeezing? Is he actually going to *kill* that man? It almost seems so, but at the last second, he shoves the unconscious man away from himself and stands. Two steps back, pale blues wild and bright, surrounded by that black face paint. His breaths are ragged gasps. He's struggling to let it go, to NOT go back in for the kill.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Undercover work is a little difficult when you're six-three in flats, but sometimes there's the right environment, with few enough people watching, and you can get away with existing somewhere without people noticing. This setting, the underground fighting ring that others primarily have been busting up, is one such place.

    They tend to be as illegal as dog or cockfights, consisting of a group of people many of whom don't want to be there- and almost all of that subset of people are in the ring. Abused, kidnapped, otherwise harmed in order to give the crowd the best fight possible.

    It's taken Power Girl quite a bit to get there- not in terms of greasing palms, but more being in the right place at the right time. New York isn't her typical haunt: People know better to do things like this in the city where caped titans from outer space that can hear a pin drop in your secure bunker from outer space tend to roam day in and day out. Matters of respect and informal jurisdiction normally keep her out.

    Tonight isn't a normal night.

    Dressed in a thick sweater and jeans baggy enough to hide her boots, Power Girl isn't altogether conspicuous at the moment- but she is certainly quite surprised. When Cap tells you someone's clean, they're clean. Karen knows this- she might not know Bucky well or, really, at all- but if he's got Cap's confidence, he's got hers, at least in the context of being on the up and up. To see him in the ring here, she is immediately wondering if something else is going on.

    Power Girl isn't here to play nice. She's not here for reconnaissance, she's not here for a stealth mission. She's here on her own, to send the roaches back under the fridge.

    That's why, as the fight itself lurches to start, Bucky looking up at something approaching what you'd imagine if the Grimace's vengeful spirit possessed Dwayne Johnson, that Karen decides on action. Bucky's fight- if it can even be called that, plays out in those few seconds of decision making. When it's just about over, that's when Karen stands up.

    The world comes to a screeching halt: The cheering crowd, the organizers of this whole vicious affair, everything seems to get caught in the morass Karen makes out of what to anyone else would be just another second.

    Her hands tear at the sweater, pulling it apart like wet paper. The jeans get the same treatment, and though this is in the moment between moments, Karen drifts forward in the air towards the cage that contains both fighters. Time reasserts itself only because she lets it. Sunlight is one helluva drug.

    The steel cage dents and parts like falling water around her as Power Girl moves through it. The noise of the metal whining and splitting will be loud enough to be heard over the crowd. She didn't hit it, she didn't pull it apart with her bare hands- she just flew through it as if it weren't even there.

    "Bucky. Would you mind telling me just /what/ in the /hell/ you're doing?"

Hercules has posed:
    The Olympian God of Strength, in cosplay as a native lumberjack, can't help but grin at the fight playing out before him. He had heard stories of the Winter Soldier's prowess, but he hadn't yet seen it himself. He was seated by himself in the corner of the room, chugging heavily from that mug of beer. Once the fight is over, and the tall woman makes her way to, and THROUGH, the cage, he perks upright. He slowly wipes his beard on the back of that flannel sleeve.

    Who was -this-? Clearly no mere mortal like everyone else, if she was able to fly... something even the mighty Hercules cannot do without magical assistance. Nevermind going through the steel as if it were no different than the air she flies through.

    He fights the urge to stand and approach the cage to see what was going on. Instead, he slowly reclines back in his seat, his powerful gaze still fixated on the cage and the coming interaction between Power Girl and the Winter Soldier.

James Barnes has posed:
    For Bucky, at least for a second or three, there wasn't anything but that internal struggle going on. Everything else is just far off noise, the crowd all mixed up between cheering and booing and ... some just hurrying to leave when time starts again. ...and Karen's voice.

    It takes way too long for those words to reach his ears and even longer for him to actually turn to look at her with those wild eyes.

    Truth be told, he looks *confused*. Those pale blues dart away from Karen, around the ring, around the crowd. It might even seem like maybe he *had* been triggered, that someone was pulling the puppet strings?

    He opens his mouth to speak, but says nothing. In times like this? He has two modes, fight or flight. He sure the hell isn't going to fight Karen. Even if she couldn't wipe the floor with him in the blink of an eye, he wouldn't *fight* Karen, it's... Karen, she's Steve's friend and, therefore, off violence limits.

    So, he flees. Tries to anyway, straight out the Karen sized hole in the cage.

    Okay, wild-eyed Winter Soldier on the run and crazy powered girl in the ring? More people are opting to get the fuck out of dodge.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl is familiar with that... Mode. She sees it pretty often in the supervillains they get in Metropolis- the ones that are more desperate, or who they've foiled repeatedly enough that they're not willing to give up or go down.

    Part of her expects Bucky to pick Fight, because that's just what she's used to... So when he bolts, he gets some pretty good distance before she's just... There. Floating in front of the hole she'd made, her arms folded and face ever more irate with each passing moment. Sure, it's probably just enough time that if Bucky's pretty desperate he might dive for it, but if he does he'll just end up bouncing off of Power Girl in just the way you don't want to.

    With his escape cut off- and an accompanying rush of air to signal that she just moved that distance in the blink of an eye.

    "You're not going anywhere until you calm down and tell me what's going on."

Hercules has posed:
    Hercules looks on, guaging the rection of the Winter Soldier as Power Girl confronts him. Why did she get involved? This appeared to be a fight between to consenting individuals. At least, as far as he could tell. By the way she carried herself, and the way Barnes responds to seeing her, it becomes evident to the Prince of Power that the two of them have history.

    He sees that look in the eyes of Barnes. An all too familiar look. One of trauma. One that triggers a life or death response in most mortals. Hell, most warriors - be they mortal or otherwise - might experience such a feeling. Being as old as Hercules, and as well travelled, it is something he has seen many times.

    As the Winter Soldier bolts, Hercules is already on his feet. But in the time it takes him to get on his feet and start to head Barnes off, the woman is already there. His eyes go wide.

    "VERILY! Who is this lady that has a speed that could rival even Hermes himself?!" That booming voice, accent, and choice of words immediately renders his inconspicuous outfit rather suspect.

    He makes his way over towards the two, then, keeping a bit of distance but coming close enough to make himself known, if they hadn't already noticed them. "You two - what is the meaning of this malarky?! Why dost thee ruin the festivities?!"

James Barnes has posed:
    Trapped. Bucky staggers back a few steps after coming within inches of bouncing off Power Girl. Once he's sure he's not falling on his ass, he back pedals a few more steps, then a few more. His head's on a swivel, looking for the next best exit. That would be the small gate w where contestants enter, but he'd have to get there first and it's WAY over there.

    When he turns back again, it's clear that he's not just a wild animal in the moment, but an injured one - not physically injured, although he is sporting a bloody lip and a gash over his left eye, blood running from it is all smeared down that side of his face, the serum in his veins turn that into a minor annoyance. No, this is a different 'injured', the type that hurts deep in the soul and mind.

    The place is clearing out really quickly, patrons disappearing into hidden holes like scurrying roaches. None of them want a piece of anything happening in that ring.

    Hercules is not wrong, Bucky has trauma in SPADES and tonight? Those traumas seem to be getting the better of him.

    Left with few options, he just keeps backing up, if he's not stopped he'll do that until he hits something that keeps him from moving further. In this case, it just so happens to be the prone form of the unconscious purple mountain. He trips over the guy, goes down on his ass.

    Finally he speaks. "I dunno." Doesn't know what? What he's doing? What's going on? Where he's at? His own damned name? All of the above?

Karen Starr has posed:
    As Bucky backs up, Karen approaches. Not at super speed, not in a flash, and slowly softening as she does. She touches down on the ground just as Bucky goes over the not-so-flying unconfirmed-people-eater.

    "Jesus." she sighs, just slightly under her breath. Her arms unfurl, and her hands find themselves on her hips. For a few moments, she sort of looms over Bucky, an impassive, impervious figure.

    "Come on, let's get you up." Finally, some... Assistance? Sure, Power Girl is not the /nicest/ of people, she's certainly difficult to deal with, but she's not a monster. Mercurial, maybe- but she gets what's going on. She sympathizes. Something is /wrong/ and it isn't Bucky's bruises.

    Her hand comes out, slowly, reaching out to Bucky to help him off of the floor, now that he's calmed down enough that, no matter how basic they may be, some level of words have returned to him.

    However, her head tilts back, and her brow raises, catching sight and sound of the man in the crowd. "Festivities?" The demand for her identity goes practically unheard, and definitely unaddressed, "These aren't festivities. Boxers don't need a cage, this is abuse. Mental, physical, all of the above- these people are monsters, and this isn't a party."

Hercules has posed:
    "Surely, you jest! Abuse? This is fighting, almost in its purest fo-..." He pauses, as if something has just occurred to him. He looks to the now grounded Winter Soldier curiously, and to the unconscious purple... thing in front of him. Is noone going to ask whats up with that guy? Does noone care?

    "You there! Soldier of Winter! Were you not fighting of your own accord?! Didst some unseen villain hold a gun to thine head and force you to commit acts of violence?! Speak clearly, mortal. I would know the truth!" He pauses, looking to the woman.

    "Because thou are right, strange woman! That is not fighting. That is barbaric!"

James Barnes has posed:
    Does she have any idea? Does Karen know that in addressing Hercules, she's spoken out loud the reason Bucky's here, the reason he goes through spells of actually *frequenting* these things. It's the abuse that attracts him when things get dark all up in that Swiss cheese brain of his. Abuse he feels he deserves. Does he come to lose? No, but would he care if he did? Probably not, even if the cost was the ultimate one.

    It's something he's been trying to work on, but he's a work in progress, not perfection. It's only been a piddly three years out of the past seventy-three or so that he's been 'home'.

    He gets to is feet and he's immediately wiping at his face with his forearm, smearing blood and black face paint all over his sleeve. He's struggling to get that paint OFF.

    "Peggy's dying." The statement is so random and it's spoken so softly that it might not even be heard.

    "No one forced me..." Bucky's finding a little more of his voice, but is the answer really that simple? Would he be here if HYDRA hadn't tortured and abused him for three quarters of his one hundred and seven years? Isn't it actually true that they ... forced him to where he is today, that they're still forcing his hand?

Karen Starr has posed:
    There's only so much psychoanalysis Karen can do without being psychic. She doesn't understand /all/ of it, necessarily: But she gets certain things. Bucky is probably one of the people that /could/ lie to her successfully if he really needed to, but right now? Guy's like an open book. Some of the pages are in invisible ink, but it's still open.

    "Oh." she states, pinching at her brows. "You forced you. You came down here to get hurt. You weren't looking for a fight- this is New York. You could find a fight around every corner. If it was aggression, I'm sure Steve'd go a few rounds. I'm not stupid, you came here to /bleed./ I don't know why you're beating yourself up, but you don't need to."

    Her attention shifts back to Hercules, "People like this are everywhere. Like rats and roaches. Started with slaves, a long time ago. Modeled after gladiators, but genuine /slaves/ fighting to the grievous injury for entertainment. They moved onto dogs and other animals, penning them up, hurting them, making them feral and afraid. Some people come in here willingly, but almost all of them just want to hurt people. Almost."

    Power Girl isn't overly invested in this- it's not her business, but frankly, nothing ever /is/ her business. She's not one hundred percent sure, but... What's the harm in asking?

    "What's happened to Peggy?"

    Maybe she can help.

Hercules has posed:
    Hercules registers their words. Letting them wash over him for a moment. He is quiet, letting them speak for a moment as he looks around.

    "I had thought that enslaved gladitorial combat had went out of style... and acceptance.... ages ago! It would seem that some things just will not change, despite mortals becoming more informed." He sighs.

    "Indeed! There is nothing else to it then. This place... the mighty Hercules will reduce it to RUBBLE!"

    As he says this, he walks to a nearby wooden pillar. With a simple backhand, the wood splinters and explodes easily enough, sending tiny pieces of wood flying everywhere....

    .... and the ceiling to start creaking....

    And those that weren't already fleeing like insects immediately started to run to get free of the building before Hercules makes good on his statement.

James Barnes has posed:
    "Bleeding's what they made me for innit? Or making people bleed..." Enough time passes between that and his next answer so that it's clear that he's talking about 'what happened to Peggy?' But it applies to 'who made him' as well.

    "HYDRA." That word, sometimes he spits it out like a curse, other times, like this one... he whispers it in fear. HYDRA. That's what happened to Peggy just like that's what's happened to cause everything else that's fucked up in his head, in his life. It's not a very specific answer, but he's still working on words. Could be he'll tell the rest of it? Maybe?

    But for the moment, he just moves away from Karen to sit with his back to a part of the cage that isn't ripped apart. He's not a flight risk anymore, he just needs... space? He draws his knees up a little to rest his elbows on them and lets his head drop forward so that mop of sweaty, bloody hair falls over his face. From time to time, he reaches up to scrub at the paint with his forearm a little more. "You gonna let me leave or drag me off to Steve?" he finally asks.

    Then some dude is trying to tear the building down around them? "What the fuck?" he shoves himself to his feet. He shoots Karen a 'th'hell's up with this guy' LOOK.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen looks off to the side for a moment, hands still on her hips. She's not the... Killing type. Sure, the exact definition of 'knock _____ block off' tends to vary in intensity based on who she's speaking to and about at any point in time, but it almost certainly is never a precursor to murder.

    "Okay, that's... That's rough. Listen, I'm going to need some more to go on. I might know some people, I might be able to do something, but I've got to know more."

    That sympathetic moment is cut short. Hercules engages the building in glorious combat and, like most buildings in this genre, it loses pretty spectacularly. Karen looks up for a moment, and manages a quiet- but still audible- "Nope. Don't like that." As the building starts to collapse.

    Jarring may not be the right word. Frankly, it never feels quite /right/ the first time you get moved faster than your ability to perceive getting moved. Bucky's probably tough enough and has likely been through enough that it may not faze him, but that's all relative to just how Bucky's feeling.

    Regardless, in the middle of his motion to give Karen that look, Bucky goes from being inside, to being outside. Swiftly then, people just start /appearing/ nearby. All of them in various stages of panic. All of them react in their own way- many just collapsing and turning into a form of boneless human that has never more than now wanted the embrace of a parent. A woman curls over a railing and vomits onto the street below. A man calmly reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out a small balloon of what looks to be cocaine, tosses it to the ground next to him and without a word, lays down face first on the ground with his hands behind his head. Good times.

    Karen doesn't /stop/ Herc. Frankly, she doesn't even try. He's speaking like a Greek God and seems to have the powers of one, so this is swiftly going to become Diana's problem. Or Thor's. Or, well, both. Both is probably the best bet here. He seems to have good intentions, and she certainly doesn't seem to mind the loss of this warehouse or its basement. There's enough evidence leftover to convict a hell of a lot of people. Not exactly wrapped up in a bow, but close enough.

    While people lament their terrible luck, Karen reappears and leans herself against the railing. "We'll talk about what we're going to do with /you/ later. I haven't decided yet. I know that someone should talk to Steve. I think it should be you. For now, though, tell me about what happened to Peggy."

Hercules has posed:
    Crashing sounds of lumber and booming sounds of brick and mortar cracking can be heard over the conversation of Karen and Bucky. Despite being in the basement of a slowly crumbling, large building.

    Even louder still, despite being somewhat muffled since it is coming from within the soon-to-be-rubbled structure, is a deep and booming voice.

    "NARY ANOTHER SLAVE SHALL FIGHT IN THIS CAGE! SO SAYETH THE MIGHTY HERCULES!"

    Another loud crack and the building begins to topple over. It is a slow, dramatic thing taking place, but it doesn't happen before the God of Strength makes his appearance one more, leaping powerfully up out of the basement, through floors and walls, to come to a landing outside the building just a few mere feet away from the Kryptonian and HYDRA's renegade pet project....

Hercules has posed:
    --with an unconscious, bulky purple figure draped over his shoulder... who had started to come back to the world of the living, thanks to the racket and being carried on the God of Strength's shoulder.

    Hercules gives him a tiny toss, sending him rolling away from him a couple dozen feet of way. He gets to his feet and starts to run for his life.

James Barnes has posed:
    Bucky hasn't experienced *that* particular feeling before, but he's dealt with weird portals, that wobbly time travel feeling... Normally, he probably be fine with it after a second to get his bearings and his feet under him.

    Tonight he pukes, wretches, violently. It's over before Karen's finished rescuing, it was violent and projectile, mostly blood tinged bile, but it was quick.

    He's wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and letting out a shaky little, "I hate that shit..." under his breath when she returns. Portals, time travel, space... anything wobbly. It all sucks!

    "I don't even know." All he's managed to do is smear the paint on his face, it just makes him look more wild. "They triggered a sleeper agent," ... oh shit, that there's a hint as to his current condition. "... during a meeting and she zapped her with some sort of lightning weapon. I just know Sharon says she's not doing well, they don't think she's going to make it."

    He stares down at the ground, that damned hair falling in his face again. Spend any time around him when he's twitchy and dark, it becomes clear he uses that as an honest to God veil against the world, he hides behind it. "I'll talk to him." Because, two weeks ago, in 1943, he promised Steve he'd try to communicate better.

    What in the hell does it say about the man's life that... Hercules and his antics get not much more than a glance until he rolls Big Purple their way and the dude's stirring. "Really? I don't wanna fight that guy again?" Because Purple was there to HURT people and maybe make a little money. "Coulda just left him in there so he doesn't win three bouts by death next week."

Karen Starr has posed:
    That's... Normal. Frankly, she'd have preferred a less frantic exit, but Hercules' demolitions precluded that notion. Might as well get everyone else out before the roof comes down.

    He's still demolishing when Power Girl returns, and lingers next to Bucky. She'd left the purple guy in there primarily because she was relatively certain he'd have been fine in the rubble until the police arrived and she could get him properly arrested.

    To have Herc leap out with the fella over his shoulder elicits a sigh. She talks to Bucky, looking away for a bit. "Yeah to be honest with you, everyone hates it. Except this one girl. She was a little... Crazy, though." Taking a moment, she keeps her eyes on Copyright Free Heckguy.

    Without warning, lasers just shoot out of her eyes, like that's just a thing that should happen, and she aims them right for the purple guy's ankles- They're not super intense. No severing of anything, no permanent injury, but she's hoping to bring him down onto his front. If he goes down, she'll follow it up with a strong intake of air, and exhale in his direction. He won't be completely frozen- but he'll be frozen over, which should pin him to the ground until the authorities arrive.

    "I'll take a look at her." Karen responds, after a moment. "I don't know if /I/ can do anything, but I know some people. I'll call in a favor or two. Lifting heavy things for people earns you a couple every now and then. But, listen..." She finally looks back to Bucky.

    "You didn't do it. You weren't the agent, and even if you were, the person that needs to be punished for this isn't /you./ You walk into those rings and someone finally takes you out, or you let some hairy-assed angry butterknife elemental gut you for /real,/ that doesn't kill the Winter Soldier. That kills Bucky Barnes. You die now? When your body spent so long doing the things you regret? That's what lives on. The terror of the Winter Soldier. What's worse is, the people that made him- or their legacy of making things like him- that's not over yet. Do you want to die the Winter Soldier, or do you want to die Bucky Barnes?"

    There's a sigh, then. Karen knows a lot about trauma. Maybe it's not fair that she gets to look and act like she does- seemingly normal, with all the power in the world... But she's never forgotten, and doesn't spend any time reminding anyone: Power Girl has lost more than just about anyone or anything in existence.

    "I'm going to tell you not to let it eat at you. I'm going to say that because you need to hear it, not because it's going to get results. Don't let it eat at you." A pause. "Now that you've heard it, focus on it. Let that gnawing hate for everything that's happening turn into something that isn't this. Find them. Get yourself, and Steve, and probably Sam- not because he wants to, but because he thought you were going to get a burger or something when he got in the car- get all of you in their house and break some stuff. And when you get in over your head, just scream at the top of your lungs."

Hercules has posed:
    Hercules did not wish for the death of any mortals. No, not because of this human cockfighting event. He did wish for those involved to face justice. So no, he didn't leave the purple behemoth in the building out of fear that it might kill him. That said, he had no intention of simply letting the man run free.

    Just as he might have turned to take care of subduing the man himself, he catches the glimpse of eye lasers, and the follow-up ice breath.

    "May Zeus strike me- that was a glorious display! Well done, strangely powerful mortal!" He pauses, turning to look at her as he approaches Bucky and her.

    "Ist thou another project of the mortal mind? Like this one here?" He lets a powerful hand clasp softly on the shoulder of Bucky - as softly as a hand that large can do so. He then pauses.

    "Nay, I say! You shoot beams of might from your eyes, and your breath is so cold that it is if Boreas himself breathes from your lungs! You are no mere mortal." His hand removes from Bucky's shoulder, and his gives a modent nodding bow of his head to them both.

    "I am Hercules, and consider myself pleased to meet the both of you."

James Barnes has posed:
    "All that, it's easier said than... Fuck...when it's all my memories of my hands doing the things that make me wake up screaming at night, it just isn't so easy to say 'it wasn't me'. It'll never be separate. What are the people that think it is gonna do when they figure out it isn't?"

    When Purple goes down, Bucky actually lets out a laugh, it's a little lacking in humor but it's something. "He's why I was here tonight. Bastards been going for the kill for months in the ring." Also explains why he had a such a hard time NOT killing the guy. "Heard a rumor he was fighting tonight, my head wasn't screwed straight and here we are."

    Standing in his own vomit, outside a destroyed fight club, talking to Power Girl about his messed up bullshit in front of Hercules.

    He barks out another laugh. That one sounds a little crazy. "What the *fuck* is my life now?" GIGGLENSORT. "Jesus."

    He gets himself under some sort of control before losing it completely and says, "I think we should leave Sam out of that equation."

    "...and Jimmy?" Logan that is. "He... had every right to do what he did."

    He looks over Karen's shoulder, his pale blues all far off and distant. "I think I'll lose my mind if Peggy actually dies this time. There's too much right now, it's too much. So, yeah, whatever you can do..."

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Of course it's easier said than done. Everything's easier said than done. That doesn't make it wrong. I understand that it's not going to be easy. If it were easy, you'd be done already. You'd be fully okay, at peace with the you that's here right now, and you'd have buried the Winter Soldier. I'm not telling you this because it's easy, I'm telling you this because it's /true./"

    While Bucky's laughing at his situation, Karen looks to Herc. "No, I'm-" She begins, and then he draws his own conclusions. "They're beams of heat, but it doesn't- I'm all too mortal, trust me. I'm Power Girl. It's... A little rough, but I guess it was good to meet you, Hercules." That's not a sentence she was sure she was ever going to say, but there's more an acknowledgement internally that it isn't even really /far-fetched/ that probably ought to unsettle her. Just comes part in parcel with knowing Thor and Diana.

    "Listen, next time, you have to wait until everyone's out before bringing down the building, and really, you shouldn't bring down the building at all if you can help it. The building didn't do it, /some/ of the people in it did, so you're going to want to find who was responsible and arrest them if anything like that ever happens again." Pausing a moment, she considers what the best way to handle Hercules is.

    "Hey, there's a city called Metropolis, north of here. There's a Themysciran Embassy there, you should probably look for a woman named Diana. She'll... Have guidance for you on how to adapt to the world you're in now."

    Turning back to Bucky, she frowns. "No, no he didn't. I'm not big on killing at all, but let me be completely clear about this: Even if I were, that situation doesn't fix anything. Does tearing out your midsection bring whoever the Winter Soldier killed back to life? No, it doesn't, and you /know/ that. Does it make the Winter Soldier regret anything? No, it doesn't, because they didn't program the Winter Soldier with regret. All it does is hurt Bucky Barnes, who doesn't /deserve/ to be hurt. I know that you don't believe that yet, but hopefully you will."

    Karen looks up at the night sky for a moment, and takes in a breath she doesn't need, but it still feels nice to breathe every now and then. "I'm not really a Doctor, but I'm pretty clever, and I know people. One of them's probably the best doctor in the world, and if I'm thinking off of the top of my head, there's also this little shitbird of a drunk wizard who'll probably know a guy that knows a guy that knows a ritual that he learned once while absolutely /aggressively/ intoxicated. I'll have to buy him a bottle of good whiskey but maybe he knows a thing or two."

Hercules has posed:
    "I disagree, Power Girl! The building DID need to come down! If you destroy the vermin's den, they must scatter to find another, and thusly, they are easier to root out!" He turns to look at the other people present.

    "And, I -did- wait until everyone was out before really got started." He pauses. "Well, almost everyone!" He gives a heart belly laugh and a jerk of his head towards the frozen-over purple guy.

    "I apologize to have misled you, Power Girl! I am perhaps -too- familiar with this world, for I have lived on it and watched over it for thousands of years. But, thine advice is still taken to heart. I might seek out this 'Diana' you speak of."

    He is utterly disconnected from the seriousness of this conversation. And rightly so. He didn't really know either one of these people.

    "I will take my leave, now... but I trust that the three of us have not seen the last of each other! Until next time, I be the two of you... farewell!"

    And with that, he's gone. Not so heroically, though. He can't fly. And while he CAN jump... well. He'd rather just walk. And so he does so.

James Barnes has posed:
    "He didn't know, Jimmy didn't know. He didn't know the Winter Soldier was me. He hadn't seen me since... fuck, 1945. He had no clue, until it was done, that he was gutting Bucky Barnes," he explains quietly. "So he did have every right."

    Bucky lets that drop in a final way that makes it clear that he won't argue the point anymore.

    "Wizards aren't real," the words come out of his mouth almost as if they were compulsory. They kind of are really, the great Big Three debate... it's an ingrained response now.

    He gestures to Purple. "Can you deal with him? I'm gonna head out. I promise, I'll talk to Steve."

    He finally fully acknowledges Hercules' presence with a little mock salute. "I'll see ya around, say hey to Zena for me. You make her," a nod to Power Girl, "..do that... thing again, I'm waiting to puke until your shoes are in the line of fire."

    Really, it wasn't so much that he was intentionally ignoring the guy, but after the crap that went down, his brain just wasn't ready to process fucking /Hercules/.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl shakes her head. "Yeah, no need to stick around, big guy." She's not going to argue the point. She doesn't really like it, but nobody got hurt and if he talks to Diana, she's sure there's some level of straightening out the other woman can do. There's just no way for her to properly relate enough to get her point across.

    She turns to Bucky, and frowns a bit. "No, he didn't. That he almost killed you and then regretted it proves that enough on its own, let alone everything else about it. What if he was wrong? What if he thought he was gutting someone that just /looked/ or smelled like the person that did it? I'm not saying that he had no right to confront you- but he had no right to go from zero to murder straight away. Nobody has that right. Not ever. Especially not people with powers. We start thinking we have that right, and we're no better than the worst people this world's ever had to offer. Trust me. I've /seen it./"

    Noting that, she folds her arms again, looking over the others present. "Yeah. I'll take care of all this, you go home, get some rest, and talk to Steve. He'll help you. Talk to your shrink, too. Tell them what happened. They'll know what you need to do to stop this from happening again."

    A pat on the back, and she's sent Bucky off, so that she can wait here for the police.

James Barnes has posed:
    Lately? His shrink has been Sam. That's a whole different can of worms right there. But when HYDRA infiltrates the organization that was previously supplying your mental health maintenance and they're the reason you NEED mental health maintenance? He's not much trusting SHIELD shrinks these days.

    Bucky starts to walk off and then turns backwards to call out, "Thanks, by the way, bout eight was gonna be about 75/25 and the odds didn't favor me!"

    Just a beat and he adds, "... and from what I know about him now, Jimmy's nose isn't ever wrong!"

    Yeah, he'll go do his grave defending his old friend for that moment.

    He disappears around a corner and off into the night just as the first squad car, lights flashing, pulls around the corner at the opposite end of the block.