When Sparks Fly

Wingmen

John and I get up and I start walking in the direction that Sam and Bucky flew off the truck in. I don't know how long it'll take, but I do know they're most likely heading to the airport, which is in the same direction, "where are you going?"

"To find my friends."

"Hey, Phebs, stay here with me and we can catch a ride."

I turn around and punch John in the nose, "it's Phoebe to you, not P, not Phebs, not Rose. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am," John nods, looking at his hands to make sure I didn't break his nose, which I didn't, "I'm just gonna chalk that up to your adrenaline."

"Chalk it up to whatever you want, just get me back to my friends."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"Because you're a fraud and a liability."

As I glare at John a military truck pulls up, with Lemar in it, and we climb inside. Riding in silence as we head down the road. It doesn't take us long to come across the boys and the truck stops, when it does I hop out, "where are you going now?"

"I'm walking."

Sam and Bucky don't stop as I catch up to them, the three of us walking on the side of the road, "that didn't go as planned, huh?" John tries to start a conversation with the boys, but they don't answer, "okay." He grunts as he closes the door that I left open, "let's keep going." The truck pulls in front of us a bit, going slow enough to stay in front of us, "look, at least we know what we're up against now, huh? And we're pretty sure it's one of the Big Three, so..."

"Aliens, androids, or wizards," Lemar lists off the three like we're stupid.

"Pretty sure."

"There's no such thing as wizards," Bucky almost snarls.

"Alright, then it's aliens, or androids."

"Or Super Soldiers," I shrug, "everyone seems to forget they're a thing."

"Shit," Lemar scoffs, "super soldiers, for real?"

"Yeah," Sam nods.

"Wow," John looks around, "alright, well, then we gotta work together."

"That's not happening," Bucky shakes his head.

"I think we stand a much better chance if we all just..."

"Oh please, John," I glare over to him, "tell us what you think."

Bucky nods in agreement, "just because you carry that shield, it doesn't mean you're Captain America."

"Look," John sighs, "I've done the work, okay?"

"You ever jump on top of a grenade?"

"Yeah, actually I have. Four times. It's a thing I do with my helmet. It's a reinforced helmet."

"That's not what he means," I shake my head. "Steve jumped on one without a fancy helmet. That's kind of how he got the gig."

"Look, it's 20 miles to the airport, you guys need a ride." John opens the door, "Gary, stop." John opens the door, "get in." We reluctantly get in the truck, all I wanna do is ride in silence, but John won't shut up, "okay, so we've got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?"

Sam sighs, "they say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during the Blip. Maybe they're just trying to help."

"They got a funny way of showing it," Bucky shakes his head.

"That serum doesn't exactly have a great track record," John looks between Bucky and I, "no offense."

"We need to figure out where they're going," I cross my arms, "so if you wanna help, you can start there."

"How'd you even track them here?" Sam shrugs, "the Flag Smashers."

"Uh," Lemar scratches the back of his head, "no, we didn't track them, we tracked you, uh, through Redwing."

"You hacked my tech?"

John chuckles, "sorry, it's not exactly hacking. It's government property." John gestures to himself, "kind of the government."

"And there's another reason you shouldn't have that shield," I fake a smile over to John.

John looks over to Bucky, who is staring at him, "does he always stare like that?"

"You get used to it," Sam and I answer in unison.

"Okay, look," John clears his throat, "you know, things have gotten kind of uh..."

"Chaotic," Lemar looks over to John.

"Yeah. Well, the GRC, they're doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly, post Blip."

"Wow, the company line," I chuckle. "Keep working on it and you'll almost be convincing. But that still doesn't tell us why you two are here."

"Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable," Lemar shrugs.

"Yeah," John nods, "violent revolutionaries aren't usually good for anyone's cause."

"Usually said by the people with the resources," Sam smirks a bit sarcastically.

"Well, we got a lot of resources. If you guys, if you join up with us, we could..."

"No," Bucky answers plainly.

"I got mad respect for all three of you," Lemar gestures between Sam, Bucky and I. "But you were getting your asses kicked till we showed up."

I scoff, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Lemar Hoskins."

"I'm gonna need a little more than that."

"I'm Battlestar, John's partner."

I start to laugh, "awe, you're a sidekick, that's so cute. The government saw Sam and Steve and just thought copy and paste, huh?"

"Stop the car!" Bucky shouts.

John tries to convince us to stay as Gary stops the truck, "Look, I... I get it, okay? I get the attitude from both of you, I do." As soon as we stop Bucky gets out of the truck, "you didn't think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky." John then looks to Sam and I, "and I'm... I'm not trying to be Steve. I'm not trying to replace Steve."

"Good," I scoff, "because you couldn't even come close."

"I'm just trying to be the best Captain America I can be. That's it. It'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingmen on my side."

"It's always that last line," Sam starts to get out of the car.

"Nice, just real nice," I roll my eyes as I follow Sam.

"What? I can't exactly call you my girlfriend," John shrugs, putting his arms out a bit.

I turn around, having gotten out and started walking with Sam, "I wasn't Steve's girlfriend, I was his partner." I start to walk backwards, flipping John off with both hands.