Broken Remains || Bucky Barnes

The Star-Spangled Man (4)

Nikita's POV

We were in Baltimore, Mayland. It was a quiet street but I didn't know what we were doing here.

"Hey, it's Black Falcon. What's up?" A kid said.

"It's just Falcon, kid." Sam said.

"No, no. My daddy told me it's Black Falcon." The kid said back.

"Is it because I'm Black and I'm the Falcon?"

"Well, technically, I mean, yes."

"So are you, like, Black kid? I got him right?" Sam looked at the kids friend.

"Whatever man" The kid said as we walked away.

As they were talking I pulled Bucky aside. "Where are we going?" I asked him.

"Do you know Isaiah Bradley?" He whispered.

"No, no, no. Yeah, I know who he is. That is a terrible idea. I'm sure he's just waiting to kill you." I said. "This is the single worst plan you ever had." I tried to keep my voice low.

Sam walked up to us. Bucky silently pleaded with me. I let out a sigh and rolled my eyes.

When I was on the hunt for the Winter Soldier a few years ago, I found a file when he fought another Super Soldier. It didn't go well. I recognized the name on the file and remembered I had also had a run in with Isaiah.

When we got on the porch Bucky knocked on the door.

The door opened and a kid answered.

"We're here to see Isaiah." Bucky said.

"Nobody named Isaiah live here." The kid said.

"Look we just want to talk to him."

"You must not hear what I just said. You ain't getting in this house. Ya'll can leave now."

"Tell him the guy from the bar in Goyang is here. He's gonna know what that means."

"All right, wait here." The kid shut the door.

"Nice kid. How do you know this guy?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, Bucky. How do you know this guy? " I said knowing the answer. But Sam didn't know.

"I used to. He was a skirmish during the Korean War."

The kid came back and let us in. "Today's your lucky day. He said he wanna see for himself."

We walked into the house and an older man was there waiting for us.

"Isaiah?" Bucky asked.

"Look at you." He said.

"This is, uh, Sam and Nikita. Sam, Nikita, this is Isaiah." Sam was giving Bucky the stink eye the whole time. "He was a hero. One of the ones that Hydra feared the most. Like Steve. We met in '51." Bucky said.

"If by met, you mean I whupped your ass, then, yeah. We heard whispers he was on the peninsula, but everyone they sent after him, never came back. So the U.S. military dropped me behind the line to go deal with him. I took half that metal arm in that fight in Goyang, but I see he's managed to grow it back. And, you, Atropos. I remember you trying to get those nuclear codes."

"Yeah, great times." I gave a fake smile. It felt like the scar on my arm was burning at the thought of that mission.

"I just wanted to see if he got the arm back. Or if he'd come to kill me. Now I see it's both of you."

I made the mistake of looking at Bucky giving him the 'I told you' look.

"I'm not a killer anymore." Bucky said.

"You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be? It doesn't work like that. Well, maybe it does for folks like you." He looked at me.

"Isaiah, the reason we're here is because there's more of us-you and me out there."

"You and me."

"And we need to know how."

"I'm not gonna talk about it anymore." He threw a container into the wall. "You know what they did to me for being a hero? They put my ass in jail for 30 years. People running tests, taking my blood, coming into my cell. Even your people weren't done with me." He gestured between me and Bucky.

"Isaiah..." Sam started.

"Get out of my house!" Isaiah shouted.

I grabbed Bucky's arm and pulled him out of the house.

"Let's go, man, let's go." The kid guided Sam out.

When we walked out of the house the mood didn't change.

"Sam..."

"Why didn't you tell me about Isaiah? How could nobody bring him up?" Sam sounded furious. "I asked you a question, Bucky." Said when Bucky didn't answer.

"I know."

"Steve didn't know about him?"

"He didn't. We didn't tell him."

"So you're telling me that there was a black Super Soldier decades ago and nobody knew about it?" Sam kept shouting.

I heard car approaching and the sound of sirens.

"Hey." An officer got out of the car.

"What's up, man?" Sam asked.

"Is there a problem here?" The officer asked us.

"No, we're just talking." Sam told them.

"We're fine." Bucky said.

"Can I see your ID?" The officer asked Sam.

"I don't have ID. Why?"

"Seriously." I said.

"Okay, sir, just calm down." The officer said.

"I am calm. What do you want? We're just standing here talking."

"Just give him your ID." Bucky said.

"No." Sam protested. "We're just talking."

"Hey, hey. Is he bothering you?" The officer asked Bucky and I.

"No, he's not bothering us. Do you know who this is?" Bucky snapped back at the officer.

"Hey, these guys are Avengers." The first officer whispered to the second one.

A look of horror and excitement flashed on the officers face. "Oh, God, I am so sorry, Mr. Wilson. I didn't recognize you without the goggles. I'm really, really sorry about this. The..."

Another car pulled up. Great.

"Guys, just wait here, okay? Just..." The officer went back to his car.

"We didn't...We didn't tell anybody because he had already been through enough." I spoke lightly to Sam, referring to Isaiah.

He didn't say anything, he just shook his head.

The officer came back. "Mr. Barnes, there's a warrant out for your arrest."

"Look, the president pardoned him for all that." Sam said.

"Not for that. You missed your court-mandated therapy. It's like missing a check-in with your PO. I'm sorry, Mr. Barnes, you're under arrest."

Bucky just walked to the car and held up his hands for them to cuff him. He got in the car and Sam and I just looked at each other.

***

Okay, I might have to make them all like 5 chapters at most.