The Red Soldier: Captain America and the Red Soldier

ISSUE #6

A deafening screech sounded through the air as James Barnes skidded to a halt outside of an unfamiliar airbase. He found himself trying hard to supress a smirk as he kicked down the stand for his motorcycle and began to saunter towards the closet hanger, which seemed the busiest. Despite worrying about (Y/N), who was most likely sat at home nursing an upset stomach, he couldn't help but feel himself beam. The afternoon's activities seemed to have cleansed him of his self-doubt, relieving him of the vicious saboteur which had plagued him since being reunited with (Y/N) (L/N).

No longer was there a constant, brutal, voice in the back of his head telling him that the man he loved was simply there because he pitied him. (Y/N) (L/N) wouldn't have let someone he pitied do what James Barnes did to him; he wouldn't reduce himself to that; he was too proud.

Bucky found himself almost bouncing as he entered the hanger, his footsteps now echoing off of the walls. 'You seem cheerful,' Sam snickered, 'you had a quickie with your secretary?'

Suddenly James Barnes wasn't beaming. His joyful expression quickly turned stoic, his brows furrowing as he stared in Sam Wilson's direction. '(Y/N) isn't my secretary,' he growled.

'But you two did...' teased Sam.

'What's so important that you felt the need to drag me out of bed on a Sunday afternoon?' Bucky asked, glazing over the question with an eyeroll. He wasn't about to divulge his private ongoings with a man he barely knew, especially one who had prevented him from seeing Violet and helping himself to a plate of one of her fantastic Sunday roasts.

Sam pulled out his phone, unlocking it before showing the screen to him. Bucky stared at the image, a plain-looking man wearing a black mask, a red handprint splattered on it. 'This guy,' he said bluntly, 'he has connections with rebel organisations all over Eastern and Central Europe, and he's strong – too strong.'

'And?' Bucky responded, shrugging his shoulders.

'Well, he's been connected to this online group called the Flag Smashers, their whole aim seems to be to return everything to how it was when half the universe wasn't here,' explained Sam, 'now Redwing's traced them to a building somewhere outside of Munich. So that's where we're going.'

'I don't trust Redwing,' Bucky huffed, beginning to believe he'd made a huge mistake leaving the comfort of his and (Y/N)'s apartment. He couldn't believe he'd left his bed, left (Y/N) alone, because of the information reported by a chunk of metal.

'You don't have to trust Redwing,' Sam spat, 'because we're going to go see if he's right. I think it might be one of the Big Three.'

Sergeant Barnes felt his eyes narrow on his colleague, 'what Big Three?'

'The Big Three,' Wilson answered, as though this was supposed to offer him some clarity.

'What Big Three?'

'Androids, aliens, and wizards,' Sam rolled his eyes, as though this were common knowledge.

Bucky shook his head in disbelief, 'that's not a thing.'

'It's definitely a thing.'

'It's definitely not a thing.'

'Everytime we fight, we fight one of the Big Three,' Sam pointed out.

'So who're we fighting now? Gandalf?' he quipped, now completely convinced that he'd left his bed because of the premonitions of a lunatic.

Sam Wilson stared at him questioningly, 'how do you know about Gandalf?' he asked.