The Séance • Marvel

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier: Chapter 04

Vanessa walked ahead for a while until Sam and Bucky caught up to her. "Sorry about Redwing" teased Bucky. "No, you're not," said Sam, "What's going on in that big cyborg brain of yours?" "It's computing." "You know what? I can actually see it. I can see the gears turning. Oh, they're malfunctioning, shutting down. Yep, they're on fire" Sam continued to tease Bucky. "We gotta figure out where the serum's coming from." "Yeah. And how in the hell after 80 years are there eight Super Soldiers runnin' loose?"

Sam finished talking as a small jeep pulled up next to them. Vanessa turned and saw that it was John Walker and his partner, whom Vanessa didn't know his name. "So that didn't go as planned, huh?" Walker said as he opened the door for them to get in. No one did. "Okay. 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?" Asked Sam. "Pretty sure." "There's no such thing as wizards" argued Bucky. "Then it's aliens or androids..." said Walker. "Or Super Soldiers."

"Shit. Super Soldiers, for real?" Said Walker's friend. "Wow. All right, well, then we gotta work together." Walker said. "Yeah right" muttered Vanessa. Sam elbowed the woman telling her to be quiet. "I think we stand a much better chance if we all just..." "Just 'cause you carry that shield, it doesn't mean you're Captain America" interrupted Bucky. "Look, I've done the work, okay?" "You ever jump on top of a grenade?" Asked Bucky. "Yeah. Actually, I have. Four times" Walker said, "It's a thing I do with my helmet. It's a reinforced helmet. It's a long story, but, any... Look, it's 20 miles to the airport. You guys need a ride."

Vanessa rolled her eyes at the man's cockiness. The more he talked the more she was starting to dislike him. "I don't mind walking" Vanessa argued. "Just get in Nes," said Sam. Vanessa sat on Bucky's right side, closest to the door and furthest from Walker. "We haven't met before, John Walker, Captain America," he said as he extended his hand for Vanessa to shake. "Vanessa. Germaphobe" she said not shaking his hand. To her right, Bucky smirked a little. "Okay. So we've got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?" "They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip. Maybe they're just trying to help" Sam said. "They had a funny way of showing it," said Bucky. "That serum doesn't exactly have a great track record. No offense" said Walker.

Vanessa raised her eyebrows in surprise. "The audacity that he has is astounding," said Nate, "Let me hit him, please." Vanessa closed her eyes and shook her head. "We need to figure out where they're going. How'd you track 'em here? The Flag Smashers?" "Uh, no, we didn't track them, we tracked you, uh, through Redwing," said Walker's friend. "You hacked my tech?" "Sorry. It's not exactly hacking. It's government property. Kind of the government" Walker said with a chuckle, "Does he always just stare like that?" "You get used to it."

"Okay, look, you know, things have gotten kind of, uh..." "Chaotic." "Yeah. The GRC, they're doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly, post Blip" Walker said. "Reactivating citizenship, social security, healthcare. Basically just managing resources for the refugees who were displaced by the return" said Walker's friend. "The Global Repatriating Council does all that. I get that. So why exactly are you two here?" Asked Sam. "Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable." "Doing a hell of a job" Vanessa said under her breath.

"Yeah, violent revolutionaries aren't usually good for anyone's cause," Walker said "Usually said by the people with the resources," Sam said. "We got a lot of resources. If you guys, if you joined up with us, we could..." "No," Vanessa and Bucky said at the same time. "I got mad respect for all of y'all. But you were getting your asses kicked till we showed up." "Who are you?" Bucky asked him. "Lemar Hoskins," he said. "Look, I see a guy handing out of a helicopter in tactical gear, I need a lot more than Lemar Hoskins," Sam said. "I'm Battlestar. John's partner."

Vanessa let out an involuntary chuckle. "'Battlestar?'" Asked Bucky, "Stop the car!" As the car slowed down, Bucky tapped Vanessa's arm. "Let's go," he said. Without needing further encouragement Vanessa jumped from the jeep and began to walk off to the trail. "Look I get it. I get the attitude, I do. You didn't think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky" Vanessa heard Walker say.

Vanessa only rolled her eyes and continued walking. "You know I get why I don't like him, but why do you hate him so much?" Bucky asked her. "Do I really need a reason?" "Fair point." Vanessa chuckled and then answered, "He reminds me of someone I don't particularly like. My brother, an entitled douchebag, who thinks the whole world should bow at his feet." "You close with your family," Bucky asked. "Well... I was kicked out at the age of nine because my mother thought I was being possessed by the Devil. So, no. We aren't close" she said. 

"Oh, I uh, I'm sorry I didn't know." "It's fine don't worry about it. We're you close to your family back in the uh Elizabethan Era" she joked. He let out a genuine laugh and said, "I had a sister, her name was Rebecca. We weren't exactly the closest, but we had a relationship like any other sibling. I was always closest to my mother than my father."

Vanessa smiled, slightly wondering what it would have been like to have a loving family. "How much further away is the airport?" She asked after a few moments of silence. "About 15 miles left," Bucky said, "Why are you tired already?" "I'm sorry. Not all of us have the endurance of a triathlon athlete. You know what screw this. Can you carry me?" She asked Nate. 

Of course, Bucky couldn't see him, so he assumed she was speaking to him, "What?" "Not you," she told him. "Hop on," Nate said. Since Nate was only interacting with Vanessa, neither of the two could see him, so to them, it looked like Vanessa was sitting in the air with her legs crossed. "Don't fall asleep" he said. "No promises," Vanessa told him. As soon as they made it back on the plane, Vanessa laid down on one of the benches, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.